Social Media Campaign Review : MTS India Leverages Imran Khan's Popularity as #DKBoseReturns on Social Media

MTS has finally found its footing in the internet market in spite of the many ups and downs in the telecom industry. While its telecom services failed to make a mark, MTS is banking high on its dongle services with TATA’s Photon being its key competitor.

Objective

MTS launched a quirky online campaign to draw attention towards its internet services by making use of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Execution

A contest was launched on Facebook and Twitter on the 14th of January, releasing the teaser video of a parody based on the popular controversial Bollywood song, Bhaag DK Bose. The teaser video also starred actor Imran Khan.

Participants were asked to guess the missing words from the lyrics of the song in the teaser video, on guessing which they would, exclusively, be able to watch the complete video of the song without interruptions.

YouTube

The next day, the video of the complete song was released on YouTube and has garnered over 80000 views in more than a week.

Positives

The idea of getting an exclusive first look of the video was appealing.

Imran Khan’s popular track, Bhaag DK Bose from Delhi Belly was catchy and controversial. Its parody proved to be a brilliant adaptation by MTS, thus, making use of their brand ambassador’s identity.

Also, the new parody that spoke of the selling features of the product, MTS MBlaze had well crafted lyrics and a fitting use of tune.

It was a short campaign.

Negatives

Exclusive first looks were not very appealing, keeping in mind the song would be over soon, and the chances of getting to see the video were low.

Considering that the campaign had no lucrative give-aways, the teaser campaigns received an extremely poor response compared to the video.

MTS was also running the #IndiaforShiva prior to the release of the #DKBoseReturns video and its presence was not only diverting attention, but also made them lose focus on both the campaigns.

The campaign was not engaging or intriguing.

Scope for Improvement

The guessing of the new lyrics could have been more innovative if planned and executed accordingly.

Influencers could’ve been used to make the much needed impact. With the quality of a catchy promo video, the campaign could’ve gone viral.

More still images and posts of Imran Khan could’ve been used to utilize his star power.

Lucrative gifts for the contest could have seen a tremendous rise in interest levels for the contest.

Conclusion

The MTS #DKBoseReturns campaign did a fair job in grabbing eye balls. It did a decent job as a product reminder and in terms of advertising. Going by the statistics, the success ratio is a little low looking at the brand's social media presence.

However, the promotional video of #DKBoseReturns is fun, engaging, and youthful and has an accepted Bollywood touch to it.