Social Media Campaign Review: MTV Launches Saturday Night Alright! - India's First Fiction Series for the Internet

MTV has remained one of the most popular youth oriented brands in the country. From using Vine for promotion to using Coke Studio to engage their audience, MTV has used the digital medium quite effectively. A new show called 'Saturday Night Alright!' reiterates the brand's importance to the online media by being the country's first fiction series made for the web.

Objective

In order to capture the youth audience, MTV, in collaboration with McDowells No. 1, has come up with the country's first fiction series made for the web - 'Saturday Night Alright!'

Execution

Saturday Night Alright! is a 12 part weekly series about 4 friends who meet every Saturday for a round of drinks, with the show following their lives and experiences.

As you enter the official website of the show, MTV greets you asking whether you are of drinking age in your country of residence. A 'yes' reveals the website, while a 'no' does nothing. One can then access all episodes on the website or find out more about the show.  

The first one of these approximately 10 minute long episodes was launched by MTV India on the 11th of November.

In order to promote the newly introduced concept and show how the brand has channelised Facebook and Twitter for promotion, MTV's official Facebook page's cover photo adorns a creative for the show, and the Twitter background also does the same. Adding to these, MTV has been regularly updating its social media channels to actively promote the show. The MTV India YouTube channel is also regularly updated with the latest episodes and promotional videos.

Positives

The fact that an Indian brand is giving importance to creating fiction exclusively for the online space, is a certain positive for the show. The 10 minute duration also works well with the web. Using Facebook/Twitter shares with videos on the website and enabling Facebook comments also reinforces the nature of the online space.

With broadcast space being hugely expensive, working with online content is great strategy, as well as serves to put out a statement that you take the internet seriously and are out there to expand on different mediums.

Scope for Improvement

The videos on the website are MTV's own embeds. If the show is truly online and they are already using YouTube, why not embed YouTube videos only? It will help capture a better number of views as well. The amount of tweets going out regarding the show are not substantial at all. There is also a need for MTV to perhaps use the hashtag that they are using for the show more frequenty - that being #SNA.

Conclusion

As a concept, emphasising on online content might be a great start as a phenomenon. Moreover, though the publicity and engagement around the show might have had a slow start, MTV is surely picking up in terms of promotion.