[Interview] Up Close and Personal with Adhuna Bhabani

Social Samosa speaks to the 'head' behind the vibrantly branched out success BBLUNT, Adhuna Bhabani, attempting to uncover how they 'style' their popularity on social media.

From styling the manes of Bollywood celebrities for some of the most popular movies such as Dil Chahta Hai and Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, to hosting a dedicated TV show, BBLUNT has once managed to carve a place for themselves.

Sharing how the brand has enjoyed and sustained their success, Adhuna Bhabani teases that there is more to come!

BBlunt recently created a brand film. What was the objective behind the campaign and what kind of response did you receive? 

With a decade of hair experience in Bollywood and on the fashion runways to our credit, this year we took the brand’s vision even further through the mega launch of BBLUNT’s High Shine Crème at-Home Hair Color – Salon Secret with Kareena Kapoor-Khan.

With all the positive feedback we received on the vibrancy of each shade and the long-lasting shine delivered, it was about time we told our audience the Bollywood backstory that made the Salon Secret dream a reality.

As expected, the campaign was a bigger hit in terms of view through rates compared to our last successful digital campaign - #DirtyLittleSecret. The BBLUNT Salon Secret video received 34 Million+ impressions across all platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Native and more.

One of the drawbacks of content marketing is the limited shelf life of the content. How do you make sure that your content does not get lost in the sea of films and other communications published every day? 

At BBLUNT, we’ve always kept out content as fun and quirky as the brand itself. With the #DirtyLittleSecret campaign we ensured there was funky music, leading bloggers that our audiences follow and love and fun lyrics weaving in the product extremely subtly. It became a film that viewers enjoyed and were singing along to.

We’re glad that it wasn’t perceived as another product-centric film launched by a brand. The same treatment was given to the Salon Secret digital film – wherein the video took the audience on a journey back in time, showcasing 4 of Bollywood’s style-iconic, blockbuster, fan-favourite films, revealing the real inspiration behind the newly launched 7 shades of Salon Secret.

How do you measure ROI from your content marketing initiatives?

We garner a lot of earned media value from the long standing relationships we have established in the Bollywood fraternity, from the bloggers we feature and all our search efforts. Hence, when we calculate the organic numbers we achieve, which help us generate purchases and increase awareness of our brand in a fun, engaging fashion, the ROI that we receive is fairly good.

What are the content marketing trends that you foresee in 2016? 

We see content moving from blog to vlog and that’s a big bet for us to latch onto, considering we’re a content-rich brand.

Recommendations are going to be big, key drivers and hence strengthening relationships with influencers is crucial.

Influencer outreach is one of the most important aspects of content marketing. Do you often work with influencers? How have the results been? 

BBLUNT has always believed in the strength and reach of influencers. Both the digital films launched by the brand till date have seen bloggers leading the film and being important collaborators. This has ensured the video reached the right target audience and delivered the desired impact.

Brands are still struggling to understand the core essence of Influencer Marketing. Where do you think the industry stumbling when it comes to this?

Considering we’re a young, bold and premium priced brand that’s constantly evolving, our influencers’ point of view and reviews make a huge difference to us. Hence our efforts in this have been consistent and will continue to be.

Please share your plans for 2017. Any campaigns in the pipeline? 

There are a lot of exciting plans in the pipeline. Our creative caps are always on!