Amazon Prime Video, one of India’s leading OTT services, was coming out with a new show - The Wheel Of Time. It is an American epic fantasy streaming television series developed for Amazon Prime Video, based on the bestselling book by Robert Jordan. Set in a world that is rich with diverse cultures and people, The Wheel of Time is an exciting twist on the timeless tale of good vs evil.
Therefore, the objective for the campaign was to position ‘The Wheel of Time’ as the ultimate fantasy-fiction series which is a must-watch for fans of the fantasy genre. The aim was also to generate hype about the book-inspired franchise which will help build future affinity for upcoming seasons.
Considering that The Wheel of Time was a new show in the fantasy genre on Amazon Prime Video, several digital platforms, like Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and even Quora, were strategically targeted to create a higher impact and get people familiarised with the show. The internet was populated with the show instances, terminologies and references, to best catch the netizens' attention and drive them towards the show. Enlisting a multitude of influencers from a wide range of sectors pushed the scope of the narrative to a much larger audience, creating the feeling that everyone is talking about the series. Moreover, content from both the show and the books was intentionally leveraged to deliver a communication, titled #TheWheelOfTimeIsTurning, suited for all the audience segments.
The feeling of missing out (FOMO) among the audiences was also leveraged in several ways, positioning the show as an “unmissable journey” to be undertaken by the audiences. They didn’t want to miss out on the show when their favorite influencers and Instagram/YouTube channels were speaking about it.
‘The Wheel of Time’ is an epic book coming to life, hence the idea for the campaign was to bring the epic to the digital space.
Thus, the various activities executed within the campaign channelled this idea in a variety of ways. Having the story from the original books narrated by renowned Indian actors Anushka Sharma (in Hindi) & R Madhavan (in Telugu & Kannada), was a very straightforward way into the fantasy epic. It invited the books’ fans and potential fans alike. To deliver a truly unique experience, the idea was to get influencers to create content that combined the fantasy element of the show with relatable formats and instances.
Further, the brand wanted the campaign journey to go hand-in-hand with the show’s journey. So, to start with the launch of the trailer, with curated amplification for each further step, ending with getting the audience’s review uniquely on the Quora forum, hence concluding the epic journey.
Trailer Launch: It all started by pushing the trailer for the show, through Instagram stories with a mix of Entertainment and Gaming Influencers like Prajakta Kohli, Mortal, Dhruv Rathee Animesh, Niharika & Kusha Kapila with a cumulative following of ~13M. They spoke about the trailer visuals, the cast and even showcased the larger than life aspects of the show in order to create conversations & drive FOMO among their fans to watch the trailer. Partnering with media like The Quint, Arre, ScoopWhoop, Men’s XP allowed for a stage to speak about the show’s plotline and characters; amplified by meme centric social media posts by Vagabomb, WebSeries Mania, Arre Post, Arre Article post, Scoopwhoop. Other collaborations included a quiz show format story pushed by Nutshell & TTT with a cumulative following of ~4.4M.
Build Up to Show Launch: On the launch weekend, to drive conversations around the show, Twitter & Instagram influencers like Niharika, Sahil Shah, Sapan Verma, Sorabh Pant were collaborated with, to showcase their excitement for the show. Considering the fandom around Alvaro Morte of the Money Heist fame, Jose Covaco was roped in to create a Reel integrating a popular scene from the show. Further, with the help of popular influencers like Rohan Joshi and Sahil Shah who are fans of books and were really excited to watch the show, an ‘Ask Me Anything' session was conducted with them wherein they answered various questions fans had about the show.
#TheWheelOfTimeIsTurning: Considering that The Wheel of Time was a new show in the fantasy genre on Amazon Prime Video, so to create a higher impact and get fans familiarised with the show, the #TheWheelOfTimeIsTurning activity was initiated on Twitter. The intent was to make the term colloquial for the audience, with a show tie back and drive them to watch the show. Over 30 brands organically tweeted back with their context of how the wheel of time was turning, in addition to huge audience response.
Epic of The Wheel Of Time ft. Anushka Sharma & R Madhavan: To generate hype about the show during the week of its launch, especially among the regional audiences (since the show was released in 4 languages - Telugu, Tamil, English & Hindi), one of the key activities carried out was a collaboration with popular celebrities - Anushka Sharma & R Madhavan. In a story narration format, they unveiled the world of The Wheel of Time to introduce the franchise to newer audiences and reel them in by giving them a glimpse of the show universe in Hinglish & Tamil respectively. It also worked towards attracting the ‘book lovers’ audience.
The Internet Has WOT Fever: In order to establish The Wheel of Time (WOT) as a pop-culture must-do, it was popularised with the help of several collaborations. The content creators and influencers were chosen from varied sectors like fashion, music, food, art, etc., namely Qualitea Posts, Unseen Friend, Dhruv Rathee, Just here to ruin your day, Indian Illustrator, Shivesh Bhatia, Pooja Dhingra, Rahul Chopde, Shikha Sharma, The Tabla Guy, Ved Prajapati, Siddharth Batra and Radhika Bangia. They created unique pieces of content (he/she has got the WOT fever) marrying it with the key themes from the show in order to create FOMO among their fans and get them hooked to the show there by creating the desired fandom for the show.
Episodics: A unique weekly IP (with 3 episodes) was built with the Artist ROB, an Indian YouTube & Instagram creator who is popular for his art-based & imaginative DIY content. The idea was to encapsulate his expertise & marry it with the show universe wherein he created art Reels using the most epic scenes from the episodes with an objective to make it relatable to those who’ve watched the show & create FOMO for those who hadn’t. Another episodic property was created with Niharika NM, an Instagram influencer, who gave episodic recaps of the show in her patented comical, witty and relatable style.
Show Finale: As soon as the show aired its grand finale, the campaign moved to Quora, engaging the users in Q&A and discussion about their favourite moments from the show, comparison with the books, fan theories and overall show review, to keep the momentum of the show going and drive conversations from the audience's perspective. To build further hype around the Finale, Prajakta Koli, a very popular content creator was roped in, who posted a Reel on Instagram where she was seen channelling powers like the show’s lead character, Moiraine, while doing day-to-day tasks to make it more relatable for those who have watched the show & create FOMO for those who haven’t and urge them to watch all episodes.
Overall, the campaign garnered 20.2K social mentions, a social engagement of 861K on Amazon Prime Video’s platforms and 8.18M views.
The fans appreciated the story narration videos by Anushka Sharma and R Madhavan, helping the campaign garner a cumulative engagement of 2.3M and 207K views on the talent’s platforms and a cumulative engagement of 37K and 2.6M views on Amazon Prime Video platforms.
The WOT Fever activity got a cumulative engagement of 179K and 1.7M views. Furthermore, it successfully managed to create a community of 1.7K followers. The weekly IP with ROB garnered a cumulative engagement of 107K & 746K views across all reels; and the one with Niharika, an engagement of 27.3K and 730K views cumulatively. The collaboration with Prajakta Koli (196.81K engagement and 1.3M views), Jose Covaco (46.80K engagement), Rohan Joshi and Sahil Shah (1.1K engagement and 22K views), were all great hits.
#TheWheelOfTimeIsTurning got an immense response from the netizens with over 30 brands participating organically.
