Discovery Plus goes beyond content to reward avid learners

Differentiated entertainment streaming app, Discovery Plus launched the ‘The Big Learning Festival’ in the first half of October (7^th to 11^th) to stimulate their subscriber count. Until now, what was considered a strategy adopted only by e-commerce and retailers, the OTT platform has launched a contest where winners can get prizes like laptops, SmartTVs, iPads and FireTV sticks.

Backing the marketing initiative is a high decibel reach campaign that is spread across high impact TV properties like IPL, ‘KBC’, ‘Bigg Boss’, movies and news channels, and also being activated on digital platforms, primarily Facebook and YouTube.

Also read:  Discovery Plus announces India’s Biggest Learning Festival

The campaign film, co-created by Taproot Dentsu, is fairly straightforward, asking the viewer to learn, subscribe and win.

Speaking about the conceptualisation of the campaign, Issac M John, Director – Digital Head - APAC, Discovery, said, “The idea for the campaign film was that the communication should grab the viewers’ attention in the first 5 seconds. After brainstorming, the agency arrived at the thought what if someone is watching a science fiction show and an alien rings the doorbell. This clutter breaking insight became the first filter as this is a period when the maximum number of campaigns are active. The second filter was that it should very clearly tell you what you need to do.”

Since October is the peak festive time and anticipating a high volume of campaigns being launched in the second half of the month, Discovery Plus decided to launch their strategy early with a differentiated approach. Part of that approach was leveraging celebrity couples like Lara Dutta-Mahesh Bhupathi, Saina Nehwal-Parupalli Kashyap and Riteish-Genelia Deshmukh, since the app is targeted at the entire family. These celebrities will engage audiences via social media with trivia, quizzes and watch lists. Avid learners can participate in The Big Learning Festival by downloading and subscribing to the Discovery Plus app, where a new round of questions is posted every day at 00.01 hours or 12.01 am.

The core idea of the campaign, elaborated John, “was to celebrate the lifelong learner in all of us. A lot of consumers don’t see Discovery Plus content as mindless entertainment, but something that helps them learn more about the world. Consumers believe this content is great for the family and they would like to keep coming back to it.”

For an OTT platform whose biggest asset is its content, to celebrate and reward the viewer in such a way is quite unorthodox. John asserted, “We are the first OTT to go beyond content. As a brand we are trusted and while people come and watch a show every day, in their view, they are not consuming a show but rather coming to Discovery Plus to acquire knowledge and gain conversation currency. The Discovery Plus app helps you become smarter and that’s what we are highlighting at the core of this engagement.”