Bigg Boss 9: We have a social media campaign idea for you!

Binge watching Orange Is The New Black’s new season for the nth time? Well, you’re not alone, says Netflix. Promoting the all new season of the iconic series, BBH Labs creates content extension across social channels appealing to the night owls.

In October 2014, the brand created a literal night owl – a character who loves to binge watch TV series all night long.

The campaign was created to promote Virgin Media’s Big Kahuna Movies Bundle. Creating an extension to the campaign, the agency took the owl (now named Ally McNab) to OINTB’s Litchfield prison – literally.

Content WAS the future

Advertising led the way to branded content, when marketers realized that consumers couldn’t wait to ‘Skip Ad’ on YouTube. But what happens when the decreasing attention span in a sea of networks makes content archaic?

Pushing through the clutter, they created an extension to an existing piece of content – not only creating a character crossover but also intertwining two supporting brands.

The night owl was then taken to the Litchfield prison – the main set up of the series Orange Is The New Black with the name Ally McNab. The video then portrayed various OINTB characters speaking about their new inmate – Ally.

According to the agency, the night owl, originally created to promote Virgin Media’s Big Kahuna Movies Bundle – was not just native advertising, branded content or product placement. The creative guys go ahead to describe it as some sort of hybrid three-way involving an entertainment property, a subscription streaming service and a broadband provider.

It’s got characters from a TV show interacting with characters from an advertising campaign, in an advertising campaign for a TV show, a broadband provider and a subscription entertainment service.

Sustaining social media push

Promoting the video across Facebook, Virgin Media created supporting graphics which played on the then upcoming series.

Apart from that there wasn’t much promotion of the video on social media, thus creating a lack of virality factor.

The YouTube video received over 10, 000 views, which is again not a very high number given the nature of the content.

A missed opportunity?

Back to the beginning – content used to be the future. The demand graph has now graduated towards power content that appeals to all senses. While BBH Lab’s Ally McNab clicked just right with Litchfield fans – it wasn’t popularized enough.

Nonetheless, if it’s social – content extension across properties can work as great way of creating brand recall and sustainability.

What could a Bigg Boss do? 

Picture this, when Colors returns with a new season of Bigg Boss, the channel could create a mascot – that would create a pre – launch buzz. Post launch, the mascot could be used to share show updates. The channel could also tie up with DTH and cable ops to get them to use the mascot on their social pages. Let’s call this seamless marketing.