Case Study: How Mini Punjab's Dara Singh Thali went viral with one blogger partnership

Causing a ripple effect of an international food blogger's video getting attention, Dara Singh Thali helped Mini Punjab go global.

Mini Punjab resorted to one paid partnership with a globally famous food blogger, My Taste Test for their Dara Singh Thali. The attention received by the video back home and internationally, helped the restaurant get influencer and media coverage through earned media efforts.

Brand Introduction 

Mini Punjab started with just three dishes and is now serving over 100 dishes. The family business has grown in size and business with the third generation managing it all. They wanted to create a presence online that was unified and in line with the brand legacy and style. Dara Singh Thali is one of their premium offerings.

Summary

They introduced — Dara Singh Thali introducing flavours from the Northern Region of India. The region is synonymous with food and its thali is a lot like its people — rich and full of life. They wanted to represent a cultural exploration on a plate that might be too large for even the biggest eaters! International influencers were invited to try the thali and share their experience on the social media platform. The active promotion aimed at building buzz and relationships with visiting patrons& potential audience globally. With an aim to reach out to a larger audience, the restaurant had a healthy mix of influencers consistently adding content before and during the launch of the iconic thali.

Problem Statement/Objective 

The brand wanted to reach out to people from all age groups starting from 12 to 60. The main goal was to attract the younger crowd in order to give them a traditional yet comforting thali experience.

Brief

The brand wanted to introduce a path-breaking product that would help connect and bring people together. This would allow bonding to take place over a shared meal.

Execution 

In terms of promotion, the brand faced many operational challenges that were overcome to deliver this product. From savoury to sweet, every dish in the thali was reimagined for the newer crowd.

Online

February 8, 2018 – First video feature by My Taste Test goes live

February 10, 2018 – Vindu Dara Singh tweets about the Dara Singh Thali

February 11, 2018 – Social media influencers and bloggers start posting about their experience

February 19, 2018 – The first video garners 3.1 million views and 73k shares

February 23, 2018 – You Tuber Priyanka Tiwari visits the Thane outlet

February 24, 2018 – Things2doinMumbai announces the Dara Singh Thali as Best Thali in Mumbai

Post this the brand had a ripple of effect of various bloggers and food publishers reaching out to review and experience the Dara Singh Thali. This included names such as Curly Tales, Sarthak Pathak of Chow Down My Lane, Captain Nick, and more.

The momentum of bloggers and influencers continued till April this year, making Dara Singh Thali one of the most sort after food experiences.

Print

February 21, 2018 - An anonymous review by Mid-day was the first print feature of this thali.

March 16, 2018 – DNA After Hrs. featured the thali as well 

May 11, 2018 – Featured in Marathi daily newspaper – Navakal 

A similar trend was witnessed in Print too.

Radio

July 10, 2018 – SBS Radio in Australia hosted an on-air interview to discuss the thali

March 29, 2018 – Served the #DaraSinghThaliChallenge at the RED FM office in Mumbai

Social Media: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube

Digital: SEO, ad words, ad placements, etc (None done by the agency, all done by top Youtube Influencers only)

Results 

After posting the first video in collaboration with the popular blogger My Taste Test, they witnessed the fastest conversion rate with the restaurant receiving calls within 2 minutes of the video going live. They also had international patrons from Canada and the USA enquiring about the thali. 

The campaign helped the restaurant (Mini Punjab Lakeside, Powai) get featured on various online and offline publications and portals — India and abroad. This included various print articles and mentions on the radio.

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With the content created around the Dara Singh Thali and other posts during promotions, the eatery's Facebook page got over 900 new likes, with an average reach of 800,000. On Instagram, the number of new followers was steadily increased by almost 4.7K, with an average reach of 4373.

Campaign insight

“Since Mini Punjab was already known for its traditional approach, we decided to go beyond that route in order to attract new audiences. This campaign gave the brand a facelift. What happened next was simply path-breaking. It paved the way to a trend that came to define the whole thali scene in Mumbai," said Tripti Bhatia Gandhi, Founder and CEO, Detales Brand Communications.