Case Study: How Prime Video used show's theme on social media to increase Breathe: Into The Shadows' shelf life

This case study explores how Prime Video leveraged trendy social media features to generate conversations & drive users to watch Breathe: Into The Shadows, pegging it as a new & must watch show.

Amazon Prime Video’s Breathe: Into The Shadows Campaign case study explores how the brand created a social media plan including organic content, talent participation, video marketing, memes, platform tools and more.

Brand Introduction

Breathe: Into the Shadows is an Indian crime drama thriller web television series created and directed by Mayank Sharma and produced by Abundantia Entertainment for Prime Video. The series starred Abhishek Bachchan, Amit Sadh, Nithya Menen, and Saiyami Kher as lead roles. All 12 episodes of the series premiered on July 10, 2020.

Summary

The core marketing objective was to position 'Breathe: Into The Shadows' as a new series and not a new season by leveraging talent, branded content, and influencers on social media platforms. The overall underlying objective was to identify key collaborations and generate conversations to create a relevant buzz through engagement-driven tactics, leading the user to experience the show, in real-time through virtual media.

Throughout the campaigns, the brand focused on an engaging organic platform strategy on Twitter and Instagram followed by YouTube and Facebook with the help of the artists of the show, key assets, and topical spots. Furthermore, meme & influencer marketing was done on Instagram and Twitter as cinephiles on Instagram have better reach, and Twitter, being an opinionated platform, influences the audience.

Problem Statement/Objective

The brand aimed to revolve the content around the key communication hooks of the show that were the also pillars for the campaign - for instance, missing child & moral dilemma, masked kidnapper, Kabir's character, etc.

Positioning 'Breathe: Into The Shadows' as a new series and not a new season of Breathe. All the micro-campaigns, branded content, influencers, memes, and social content were designed and executed around these pillars that formed the essence of the overall communication for our campaign.

Creative Idea

To identify key
collaborations and conversations to create a relevant buzz across the audience
through innovative platforms and engagement-driven ideas that lead the user to
experience the show.

Challenges

• Right after the show launch, the lead actor faced an unavoidable health issue reducing his participation in the campaign. During this phase, the show was promoted via influencers, relevant cinephile platforms, and a combination of other activities.
• Furthermore, in spite of the current situation where going out for shoots and promotions was not an option, we came up with all creative ideas and got the talent to do promotional activities via their own comfort zones i.e their house.

Also read: Case Study: How Payal Singhal leveraged influencers to make masks fashionable

Execution

The series marketing was done in phases from pre to post-launch of the show.

Pre-launch

To set the tone of the show, Amazon Prime Video released promos and teasers to attempt & create intrigue among its audience. It included the logo reveal, Siya Missing teaser video, The punished & the Kidnapper video launches.

A YouTube trailer premiere of the series was launched on 1st July 2020. The artists came together on a Zoom video call to announce the Live Premiere on YouTube along with a link to set a reminder for the same.

The Trailer Release

As the trailer premiered live, viewers were presented with experience where the artists responded to some of their questions.

Meet the Kidnapper - An IVR activity

The Official trailer was followed by a ‘Message from the Kidnapper’ with an IVR activity.

Ask me anything with Abhishek Bachchan & Amit Sadh

To drive more users towards the trailer, Amazon Prime Video hosted an Ask me anything or an AMA session with Abhishek Bachchan on Prime Instagram handle.

Owing to the popularity, a similar session was done with Amit Sadh on Twitter where the actor responded to the user's questions with text & videos.

Interactive Instagram experience - #SaveSiya

To create intrigue & replicate the show, Prime Video leveraged gamification with interactive posts & stories on Instagram through a series of hints and clues leveraging the platform features. The final post shared a CTA to the viewers to watch the show & find out the mystery.

Special delivery for Avinash

A day before the show launch, Abhishek Bachchan receives a mysterious box with an iPad, similar to the one displayed in the trailer. The iPad played a video of a special artwork forming the show logo, specially created by a leading shadow artist, in-line with the theme of the show. 

Launch

First day, First stream

The lead cast shared posts of watching the first stream of the series under Prime Video's property of First Day First Stream at midnight.

Post-launch

Call from the Kidnapper

Post-launch, the platform posted a series of interactive IG stories revealing a telephonic conversation between Dr. Avinash and the Kidnapper with a swipe up link to watch the series.

Twitter Spotlight for the launch weekend

A day after the launch, the marketers used 'Twitter Spotlight' (consisting trending hashtags, campaign descriptor, spotlight video on the Moments' tab, and a master tweet, the first tweet seen by the viewers as they log in for the first time in the day) to promote a prominent hook from the show.

Twitter thread adventure

Leveraging Twitter thread, Amazon Prime Video built an investigation game around the series. Through this, users were taken through a thread of tweets that either revealed new info & characters from the show or ended up confusing the viewers.

Instagram investigation game

To set the users upon a trail of crime to catch the murderers, marketers provided another gamified experience by leveraging Instagram's profile tag & highlight feature. Through this activity, the users are taken through a series of stories and profile tags that reveal new information via stories, static posts, videos, and profile tags, & selective options which help them to move further with the investigation in-line with the show’s narrative.

The game kick-started from Amazon Prime Video, Breathe: Into the Shadows, and Amit Sadh's handle with a bunch of Instagram stories leading viewers to make a choice between two handles - @accept_the_case & @decline_the_case, further leading to the clues with a link in the bio.

Content extensions

When YouTube comment section meet in real life

The core objective was to distract people from asking the identity of the kidnapper/masked man through banter between Dolly Singh & Saloni Gaur, decoding the trailer over a video call.

7 Questions with Siya 

Little Siya asked Abhishek Bachchan, Amit Sadh, Nithya Menena, and Saiyami Kher 7 questions on their likes and dislikes in tandem to the curiosity of the kid. 

Mumbai vs Delhi 

Throughout the show, Kabir’s two assistants, one from Mumbai & one from Delhi, are seen involved in a fun Mumbai vs Delhi rivalry. Harping on this, marketers put an IGTV video showcasing a light banter between Prakash and Jai Prakash over which city is better.

It was topical and acted as an extension from the show, where they discussed varied things. 

Nithya Menen X Ranveer Brar

Nithya Menen played a chef and a mother, in the series. In one of the engagement tactics, the actor meets real-life chef, Ranveer Brar over a breathtaking risotto. 

Leveraging BTS

The marketers used BTS videos as a marketing strategy to keep the buzz alive.

Results

• One of the highest engaged organic posts was the one on Doctor’s Day, positioning Abhishek Bachchan’s character as a psychiatrist. This was also shared by Amitabh Bachchan.
• Leveraging the increased conversation on C-16, leveraging the cliffhanger led the team to create high-performing posts with GIFs, relatable dialogues, & even BTS images.
• Some of the interactive experiences took viewers through a series of hints and clues with platform features such as turning off the comments to enhance the storytelling experience.
• Amazon Prime Video’s engagement activity to replicate the interaction experience with the Kidnapper resulted in receiving 50,000 + calls on the given number. 
• 'Ask me Anything' with Amit Sadh resulted in 2M+ impressions on twitter with the #AskAmitSadh hashtag.

Overall, throughout the campaigns, organic content was planned via social listening and data points to keep the buzz alive, aiming to keep the audience consistently engaged.