Social Media Campaign Review: Zee Café Happy Hour At 3 For The Ellen Degeneres Show

The latest season of The Ellen Degeneres show premieres on the 10th of September on Zee Café, and is scheduled to be aired Mondays to Fridays at 3pm & 7 pm.  Zee Café is generating a lot of buzz about the show with its social media campaign – Happy Hour at 3.

Objectives

The idea behind the Happy Hour at 3 campaign is to make that time of the day the “happy hour” filled with fun and happiness, which the Ellen Degeneres talk show is synonymous with.

The idea around Happy Hour at 3 is built around the concept of the show, and projects 3 pm as a time evoking the emotions of amusement while entertaining you.

Execution:

Television, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have been used together to target that section of the audience that views English entertainment shows. The ‘coming soon’ teasers began building suspense around the launch of Happy Hour at 3 on the channel’s Facebook and Twitter pages, while YouTube has been putting up banner ads with a real time countdown to the launch of the show.

Zee Café aired TV promos of Ellen with #HappyHourAt3 on 3^rd September across the network. The hashtag on the promo revealed that the Happy Hour at 3 campaign was all about Ellen on Zee Café.

Fans were given a taste of the things that were to come when the show finally went live on 10^th September, through a series of activities that reflected the essence of The Ellen Degeneres Show. Fans were given a complete celeb treatment through online chats, fun hashtags and interviews.  All of this, together with Happy Hour giveaways kept people interested and engaged with the buzz.

Everyday, 3 pm became a time when the channel created hashtags like #EllenShouldAsk where fans could talk about which celebrity they would want Ellen to ask a question to, in response to which fans gave interesting responses. A Facebook app has been created, which in the meanwhile, is capturing all the conversation around the hashtag.

Twitter related hashtags like #HappyHourAt3, #EllenAt3, #EllenShouldAsk were created to leverage conversations and gift vouchers were offered, which in turn encouraged participation. #EllenShouldAsk trended at no.1 in India on 3^rd September and #WhatMakesMeHappy and #HappyHourAt3 trended the next day too.

Positives

Zee Café has succeeded in making a mark with Happy Hour 3 on Facebook and Twitter even before the show was aired. It has integrated major social media platforms as well as television to convey the main idea behind the Ellen Degeneres Show, which is fun and happiness.

Relevant hashtags on Twitter and the visuals shared via Facebook updates reflect the essence of the Ellen Degeneres Show.

Scope for Improvement

It seems that ZeeCafe India's Twitter handle (@ZeeCafeIndia) has been disabled and as a result, it is missing out on a lot conversation with its fans.

To tickle your funny bone, watch the latest #season of the Ellen Degeneres show along with the #USA, only on @ZeeCafeIndia. Coming soon..

— ZEECorporate (@ZEECorporate) August 12, 2013

Otherwise, The campaign is well integrated and implemented and there is nothing else I would want to add to it.

Conclusion

Through the ‘Happy hour at 3′ campaign, Zee Café has effectively conveyed fun and happiness, which is the essence of The Ellen Degeneres Show at 3 pm.