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The success of Indian Popstar King's brand Blanko shows the value of creator-led brands in the expanding creative economy. Blanko is powered by the content creator Raj Shamani's House of X.
This case study explores the launch and success of the brand Blanko and also highlights the role of social media platforms and influencer engagement in driving the brand's message to the target audience.
Category Introduction
India is on a mission to become a globally acclaimed creator economy hub, and by the end of 2023, it aims to house 100Mn content creators. The creator economy space is certainly poised for substantial growth as according to recent industry reports, the sector in India is expected to grow at a 25% CAGR till 2025 to become a Rs 2,200 crore market. While there is a huge opportunity, the stark reality remains that only 0.15Mn creators are equipped to identify revenue streams outside brand collaborations, which is less than 0.2% of the total creator pool. To continue scaling the creator economy, it’s essential to expand the shelf-life of creators, enabling sustainable growth. This has led to the birth of creator-commerce or creator-led brands.
A key trend defining creator-commerce is the rise in disposable income across Indian households, which has led to an increase in consumer aspirations. And creators are the fastest way to reach and unleash the true potential of today’s regional consumers. The social influence of creators is an untapped resource pool that needs a catalyst to make them reach these audiences in a more end-to-end manner.
Brand Introduction
House of X, tech platform that helps creators to start a brand in seven days, unleashes the untapped potential of India’s creator economy. House of X's business model allows creators across categories to launch personal brands. As a full-stack platform, it helps identify the right product idea for the right creator; from sourcing to warehousing to shipping to customer service, technically handling the end-to-end solutions in building an e-commerce brand. House of X aims to build a global commerce infrastructure that enables creation of digital-first creator-led D2C brands.
House of X joined hands with the popular Indian pop star King for its first-ever brand launch - Blanko, which marks the beginning of King’s entrepreneurial journey. It is a personal care brand designed to empower passionate individuals with the power to dream big and bold. Built on the philosophy that every individual deserves access to quality grooming products, King wants to spread the message ‘It is your life, make it count’.
Summary
Powered by House of X, Blanko aims to materialise King’s dreams into realities. As someone who has lived his passion all his life, King wanted the larger campaign to offer the conviction to his fans that they can confidently embark on their journeys of self-discoveries, and shatter the stereotypes with their loud and bold dreams. As the name suggests, Blanko stands for ‘Blank Out the World’, as it urges its audience to drown the hullabaloo of the society, and listen to the voice that matters the most to them; their confident selves. An integrated campaign was built to drive this story.
Also Read: Case Study: How Spotify’s Unheard Playlist amplified the role of women in music
Objective
- Build brand awareness and strengthen brand love by channeling King’s fans and their ability to dream big and bold
- Elevate the Blanko experience through the narrative of ‘It is your life, make it count’ communicated via King’s personal journey
- Showcase how Blanko champions access to quality grooming products and highlight its product USPs
Brief
To create awareness around the newly launched ‘Blanko’ among the masses and build a personal connect with King’s fans.
Creative Idea
- To empower passionate individuals with the power to dream big and bold by using King as the messenger for self-confidence. Taking inspiration from King’s personal journey, Blanko’s story-telling motivates consumers to confidently embark on their journeys of self-discoveries, and shatter social stereotypes. The marketing initiatives showcase Blanko’s commitment towards offering consumers with creating a lasting impression and a strong statement
- Using new-age media formats across popular social media platforms such as Youtube and Instagram
Challenges
- From personal philosophy to personal brand: House of X is built with the vision to help creators start their personal brands in 7 days. They wanted to wrap King’s confidence inside a bottle
- Robust technology development: Owing to King’s followers, any form of Blanko communication would direct millions of consumers to the website. It was paramount to develop a robust tech system to support the process end-to-end
- Ensuring timely product delivery and seamless customer service: Allowing King to focus on his art and passion by ensuring seamless supply chain, backend logistics, and therefore, uninterrupted customer deliveries and query resolution
Execution
The idea was brought to life through a series of integrated social media posts across Youtube and Instagram. From a brand film and a dedicated brand website ‘ifeelblanko’ to using marketing methodologies like hype-marketing, meme-marketing, topical marketing, influencer engagement in popular formats like IG Reels/Videos, Static Carousels to name a few – Blanko was brought to life in all possible ways for its audience focused on the single message of ‘It is your life, make it count’.
The launch assets were extensively amplified across King, Raj Shamani and House of X’s social media platforms, which was organically picked by the creator, investor and consumer universe. The limited launch was announced with a special ‘fan price’ as a token of love for King’s audience.
Created buzz around the launch of Blanko by building hype and mystery during King’s concerts. The ‘?’ merchandise giveaway had the fans asking questions on what’s coming next.
Brought Blanko to life through a launch film centred around King’s personal journey and his vision to help consumers embrace their individuality with confidence
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The investor, creator and consumer universe joined the ‘It is your life, make it count’ movement —
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Presenting Puneet in an comic video to showcase how Blanko helps create a lasting impression and urges its consumers to dream big and loud through their unique confident selves.
Blanko kept the buzz alive by leveraging relevant topical moments such as the MET Gala and driving engaging content for consumers.
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Results
Within just 4 days of launch, Blanko sold 10,000 units, with the Delhi region accounting for the highest sales, followed by Mumbai. The average cart value for the orders was INR 1000 for the limited edition launch. Powered by House of X, Blanko managed 96% successful deliveries with an average delivery time of 72 hours and an average customer response time of 48 hours. Blanko witnessed an average of 1000-2000 order queries/payment requests on a daily basis despite highlighting the sold out.
The launch film has garnered over 4.6 Million views on social media, with 400,000 Shares and 541,000 Likes. Bengaluru, and Pune also showed immense love for King’s Blanko, marking over 500,000 visitors to the website.
Total organic social media views: Over 7.1 Million
Total social media likes: Over 922k
The phase 2 of sales witnessed a high pre-booking traction even before the official sales’ announcement with over 1000 pre-paid orders per week, without any promotion. The pre-orders have originated from across marketplaces like Nykaa, Amazon, Flipkart as well as our B2B suppliers. House of X aims to establish an international shipping and supply chain in the next two quarters for Blanko.
Raj Shamani, Content Creator and Founder, House of X, said, “Launching our first-ever creator-led brand couldn’t have been more powerful. King’s motivation to channelize his passion to build something larger than life perfectly aligns with the change that House of X is here to make in the creator commerce industry. Our vision for the entire launch was to simply translate King’s commitment towards his fans by helping them realize their big dreams. Infact, that is the major focus for all our marketing objectives, to see how best we can enliven the creator’s personal philosophy through a compelling narrative. Our aim is to democratize India’s creator commerce market by starting an era of the ‘Next Big Thing’ for every unique idea that holds close to the creators’ heart.
For Blanko, it was confidence. We wanted to convey that each one of us has the ability to realise their dreams with the same confidence that King carries. The remarkable success of the Blanko launch is a testament to our product strategy, marketing channels and robust technical support.”