Facebook Messenger launches animated Baahubali stickers to drive engagement

Baahubali was not just a hit in the theatres, but also on Facebook, recording over 10 million interactions on the platform, in a span of just five months. Given the growing popularity of the movie and to take the fan engagement a notch higher, Facebook decided to add new animated Baahubali stickers in its Messenger app.

Available in store for download starting May 23rd Baahubali, Kattapa and the rest of the gang are there to make your Messenger conversations with friends and fellow Baahubali fans fun and more visual. From the launch, the sticker pack has been quite a hit with 13.4 million downloads within a week’s time.

To create more buzz on the platform, a marketing campaign was designed to run exclusively on Facebook, around #WKKB (Why Kattapa Killed Baahubali). This was also the theme of the Messenger bot - another promotional tool used to keep the fans engaged. Audiences landing on the bot got an opportunity to engage in a fun quiz to know more about the characters and stand a chance to win exciting gifts. The bot was available in 5 languages, to appeal to global audiences and was hosted on both Baahubali & Kattapa pages.

Over the course of the movie’s marketing campaign, there has been 7X increase in the total number of interactions on Baahubali’s FB page, increasing from 1.5 million in Nov-Dec, 2016 to 10 million from Jan-May, 2017. More people have joined the conversation around this movie than any other Facebook has measured.

The Baahubali team also used Facebook Live to officially announce the movie release date, music launch and other key events during the promotions. Prior to the release, native trailer launch of the movie, on its official Facebook page, in four languages, garnering around 45M interactions in total, with over 22M views.

Lastly, Baahubali profile frames were also introduced on the launch of the movie and as part of expanding the Baahubali franchise, while staying connected with their beloved fans and followers, the team also launched the Baahubali comics using Facebook canvas.