Airtel's "har friend zaroori hai, yaar' campaign takes online avatar

Bharti Airtel, a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 19 countries across Asia and Africa, today announced that following the success of its "har friend zaroori hai, yaar' (HFZ) brand campaign ' the company has further extended this brand idea with the launch of an all new online viral campaign at its YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/airtel). Created by Taproot, these twenty videos are inspired by interesting "friend types' or tags created by the online audience on Facebook (www.facebook.com/airtelindia) during an outreach programme initiated by Airtel earlier. Over coming weeks, the company will periodically release a total of 20 of these videos on the web and use the concept of "Gamification' to excite viewers to unlock, access and share them.

Commenting on the launch of the new HFZ viral campaign, Bharat Bambawale (Director - Global Brand, Bharti Airtel) said, "The youthful rendition of Airtel's "har friend zaroori hai, yaar' campaign and its accompanying foot tapping friendship anthem have resonated well with people of all age groups and backgrounds ' much like the brand itself. Given the theme itself, focusing on the discerning online audience was a natural choice for us. With this in mind, Airtel earlier launched an online campaign that encouraged everyone to create unique friend types on Facebook which received a whopping 65,000 entries in a span of days. We have now chosen the most interesting friend tags of this crowd sourced lot (like "Status Update fried, Activist Friend, Dhinchak friend', "Filmi Friend', "Chipkoo Friend' and "Proxy Friend') to create new HFZ online viral videos. These videos will follow the increasingly popular global trend of "Gamification' to encourage viewers to spread the word on these evocative videos that bring alive ways in which friends touch different aspect of our lives". The original HFZ soundtrack is now also available in more fun and fresh through new interpretations in laavni, bhangra, hip-hop, folk etc.

An interesting trend that depicts the way the current generation consumes and accesses information, Gamification is an infusion of gaming techniques and unique story telling that makes discovery content more fun and engaging. As part of this "Gamification' led initiative by Airtel, everyone keen on watching these videos will need to visit www.youtube.com/airtel and will then be provided interesting cues, by responding correctly to which, they will be able to "unlock' video levels and gradually move ahead watch all videos. Tagging others and sharing these videos on social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Google+ will allow viewers to gather points on the leaderboard. And then finally you can upload your own friend type video in order to win a Nokia Lumia 800 and a trip to Ibiza, Spain to party with your friends as the grand prize.

As a complete deviation from traditional media strategy, Airtel will release these videos on the web starting 4th January 2012, for the online audience for view and share. Watch out for more HFZ viral videos that Airtel will release in the coming weeks.