After tasting success with the Tag-a-Friend-Holi Facebook application last year, Asian Paints were certain about strengthening their relationship with the online audience even further. This year we revised social media strategy to seamlessly connect Asian Paints’ association with colours and one of India's most popular festivals – Holi, with the most anticipated sporting event of 2011, The Cricket World Cup tournament.
The Game Plan
Our objective lay in creating a campaign that was self sustainable, viral and true to the brand persona of Asian Paints.
An idea stormed our minds as we mashed together Asian Paints’ color association with Holi, cricket and Facebook’s tagging feature with the user’s need to colour friends.
Redefining a Sporting Holi - The Online Way
The 2011 ‘Tag a Friend Holi’ application allowed users to pick a friend from their friend list whose profile picture was now subject to a variety of colouring tools. On selection of a particular tool, users could then choose from a variety of World Cup team colours available via the Asian Paints Palette and colour their friends pictures with specific team colours. Users could also declare their support for a team by branding the picture with a seal of that particular team. The picture was then shared and published on their walls along with a personalized message therefore setting off a viral effect.
Predict, Recruit and Win
The application also functioned as a contest encouraging users to participate and compete with each other to win prizes. At the end of the World Cup tournament, the user to successfully recruit/tag the most number of friends in support of the winning team was awarded an iPod. Runner’s up were also awarded according to their ranking on a scorecard that listed the total tally of points earned.
This saw the solution of generating viral competition, being delivered by syncing the activity with user performance.
Colours of Success
Success was evident when the application garnered close to 35,000 page views with more than 10,000 monthly active users within the first week. The application was played extensively amongst users from India, USA and UK, with the most active users hailing from the cities of Mumbai, Bangalore and New Delhi.
Along with the cricket frenzy, the application successfully engaged users with the brand ‘Asian Paints’ at every level. This creative strategy efficaciously met the needs of creating a curiosity, engaging users in social interaction and maintaining an active buzz not only during the festive period of Holi but also throughout the World Cup tournament.
What greater victory than to subject success to celebration!
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