Spikes Asia
CREATIVELAND ASIA, Mumbai / NETFLIX INDIA / 2022
Overview
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Credits
Background
Netflix’s biggest blockbuster ever starred Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, Gal ‘Wonder Woman’ Gadot, and Ryan ‘Deadpool’ Reynolds. So whatever the campaign idea was devised, had to be done keeping these towering names in mind, so as to inculcate a long term fan following for a potential franchise money maker.
Music launches for western films in India was a concept unheard of, despite being par for the course for Indian cinema. That’s when we decide to apply an Indian twist to one of the biggest western movies to come to Indian screens. Of course, keeping in mind the audience that Red Notice was meant as an entertainer for all.
The key target for the campaign was to bring eyeballs to the Netflix screens come premiere day, and in the build up to it, drive chatter and excitement around the impending release, on social media.
Idea
Indian cinema history, and therefore pop culture, is replete with heist films and confidence plots. Among the most iconic of them is one that quite literally warns one of evil gazes, and sleights of hand. And with that, we found the basis for two cultures to meet – with Red Notice, a film all about untrustworthiness, double and even triple crossing, with “Bach Ke Rehna”, a classic from Indian pop culture.
With 2 radically diverse rappers coming together, the intent was to get sparks flying – especially through the visual artistry of Bombay’s famous Chor Bazaar slickly reimagined for all manner of criminal wizardry, spanning from the small fry to the big bucks white collar criminals. Because at the end of the day, in this world, the only person one can trust is themselves.
Strategy
A ‘red notice’ alert issued by Interpol is the most severe lookout notice for an international criminal. Our strategy was to turn this very term into the centrepiece of the campaign – in a very Indian way, the “Lal Notice” (red notice in Hindi), that brought to life the high stakes world of the Indian underworld – no less breath-taking in pace than the actual events of Netflix’s Red Notice.
Keeping with the plot of challenges and dares in Red Notice, we would issue a social media challenge to coax fans and viewers of the film alike to emulate and spread the word of Red Notice’s “notoriety”!
Execution
To be showcased were several Indian scenarios of the sexier side of criminality in an Indian context, to grab eyeballs, for Netflix’s biggest release. We used rappers, who personify the hustle culture – Badshah & Divine, telling this tale, building on their stories of rising from unknowns to global celebrity, and revered on the Indian music scene for getting to where they are, based solely on their ability.
Hence came about the idea of modern-day shadiness with a classic forewarning – full of the grandeur that Red Notice boasted, the high jinks it brimmed with – all breathtakingly told in the environs of the biggest hustling town of Bombay, and overlay those with key musings, with contemporary twists, in “Bach Ke Rehna”. Of course, with the iconic ‘red notice’ alerts from Interpol – the centrepiece of an international high speed heist story, brought to life by rappers Badshah & Divine.
Outcome
The influencer campaign reached over 2.5 million viewers, with the reels being played over 2.7 million times – clearly hooking viewers, who watched it over and over again. It was also one of the most loved activations for Netflix in India, with over 281,000 likes, and so, playing a key role in driving Red Notice to become one of the most-streamed titles for Netflix India!
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