Arha Media launched its new Telugu OTT platform, aha! The team wanted to establish aha! in the competitive OTT market by leveraging the digital marketing ecosystem. The campaign aimed at optimizing costs by accurately targeting users to drive a healthy ROI on all performance media operations.

STRATEGY
 

Targeted sharply-defined audiences across multiple channels to improve install and subscription costs:

• Curated Custom Audience Lists on Google using ~150 brand and  generic keywords and leveraged Facebook’s Look-a-likes with  high intent towards Telugu-centric content and entertainment
• The cost was slashed down by studying individual channel’s  strengths to optimally use them for new user acquisition and  retargeting purposes

Content-specific Messaging in Telugu and English:

• The creatives emphasized on original content on aha! to promote the platform using star cast, themes and characters of movies and shows like Mastis, Sin and Locked, et cetera

EXECUTION
 

Innovative Ad Formats across Vigorous Media Mix to target Telugu speakers while sustaining user interaction:

• With no previous learnings, the teams manoeuvred content  strategies around specific shows and movies
• The teams devised multiple campaigns to ensure constant  engagement during lockdown. For instance, Watch From  Home (April), Blockbuster July, et cetera.
• Incorporated channels like Google, Facebook, Programmatic,  Apple Search, TikTok,  YouTube Branding for new user acquisition  and Programmatic and Facebook  for retargeting
• Leveraged Dynamic Search Ads, Vernacular Ads, Dynamic  Creatives, Poll Ads, Carousel Ads, Video Ads, TrueView Instream  and Brand Lift on YouTube
• Delivery of ads was restricted to prominent Telugu websites on Google vis-a-vis to all Telugu users PAN India via Social

“We wanted to strike the market by leveraging our content. The campaigns ensured an out-and-out presence across channels with a thorough understanding of each channel’s capabilities. Additionally, precise audience strategy throughout brought precision to branding and retargeting campaigns. We've seen a substantial drop by 50% in subscription costs and it was a great start for us! A special mention goes to team Sokrati who worked with us round the clock to ensure we were able to learn and adapt almost on a daily basis in the initial stages of our launch campaign.”

Ajit Thakur

CEO, Aha