Shruti Haasan pays a visit to P&G Shiksha School

Promoting television shows - be it reality, drama or comedy; is serious business. Since the launch of Comedy Central India, the channel has entertained and engaged its viewers with clutter breaking shows and initiatives, with the sole purpose of making it's viewers laugh. As part of the brand strategy, the channel has undertaken initiatives to make its loyal fans laugh on digital platforms as well. Successfully so, Comedy central engaged the online fans with one such innovative digital campaign via a social media game for the second season of its popular legal comedy drama series ‘Suits – Season 2’.

The twofold objective defined for this campaign included capitalization on the show’s wide appeal by providing a refresher to audiences before the start and during the 

This interactive campaign kicked off with the channel creating conversations around Suits through a “Suits challenge”. It tested die-hard fans of the show to find out if they have what it takes to be a real Suitor using an innovative approach of creating a treasure hunt across the web. Fans needed to hunt for clues across social media platforms of Comedy Central that includes Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube. They also required watching a video on YouTube and completing the quote and finding a hint on Pinterest image board or tweet with hashtag #IfIWereJessica to @ComedyCentralIn.

In true Comedy Central style, fans also needed to research funny laws and odd facts to complete the game. The game consisted of six levels, with six questions around the six key characters thereby increasing familiarity and recall. Participation was further incentivized with exclusive custom made Suits merchandise. Marketing strategy for the game involved aggressive promotions on television and on-line which was well received by the fans. Over 50,000 participants signed up to test their “Suits Quotient” giving the Facebook page 308,000 views and 199,160 unique views. The page witnessed a healthy bounce rate of 30% which proved that audiences were engaging with the content.

The effective outcome was achieved with the right balance of creative media communication strategies. Comedy Central used a unique technology of weaving different social media platforms into a single game by creating a pleasant, interactive experience. The application was integrated with Facebook and Twitter allowing fans to sign in and post as well as tweet without leaving the gaming interface.

Another tricky element from a technology point of view was to work on the mechanics of a Treasure Hunt. Fans could only move forward if each question was answered correctly. While they could keep trying again and again they were only eligible to win if they got all the questions right in their first try. This means that the backend needed to differentiate between users with single tries and users with multiple tries and throw up a unique “result page” for each category. This resulted into separating the true Suits fans from the others, while still keeping all participants engaged till the end. The social media conversations around the show increased and the show #SuitsS2onCC trended in India.

Comedy Central helped in meeting its goal as the campaign did succeed in driving audiences to Suits Season 2.