India’s homegrown streaming platform, ALTBalaji’s latest release Cartel can easily be defined as a massive blockbuster. Yesterday, as per a report in Chrome OTT, Cartel is still one of the top five shows in the country for Week 37. This just means that despite it releasing over a month, the action thriller has been loved by the masses. However, one can’t deny that the video-on-demand platform went all out to promote the series that featured, 137 actors including Supriya Pathak, Rithvik Dhanjani, Jitendra Joshi, Tanuj Virwani, and Divya Agarwal. For the unversed, Cartel is the story of the first family of the business, that rules the divided factions of the underworld in the city of Mumbai.
For Cartel, ALTBalaji adopted a 360-degree route of communication across Digital, Television, Print, and OOH. The campaign focussed on The House of Angres is aimed at creating intrigue, engagement, and chatter around what’s brewing, through an integrated campaign. The campaign started as the makers created curiosity around the ‘Who are the Angres’ proposition without any hint or mention of the show. The idea was to keep the viewers guessing about who is ‘The Angres?’ The same trend for two days on Twitter and other social media platforms.
Next makers adopted a unique technique by revealing the poster of the series via graffiti on the walls of Mumbai. ALTBalaji quite literally went painting the town red for the series. The trailer was amplified by the media and the influencers for mass reach. As one of the ambient activations, Cartel’s promo was also displayed in Vijay Sales outlets, pan-India.
Not just promotions, Cartel makers also took a novel step of tree plantation making sure they also spread out right messaging to their audience. The cast of Cartel joined hands with Mission Green Mumbai to plant trees around Aarey Colony. Furthermore, the team collaborated with popular Television serials such as Kumkum Bhagya and Kundali Bhagya for the promotions.
ALTBalaji partnered with 15+ youth-centric brands to engage with its audiences. Aligning with the theme of the show, the OTT platform tied up with the brands that include Ferns N Petals, Ixigo, Ugaoo, Growfitter, Dunzo, Reliance digital, Voyage, Flyrobe, Ustreak, Social Ketchup, Josh, Bollywoo, etc. Cartel collaborated with these brands for their reach and engagement in different capacities. The associations were further amplified by concept videos, media giveaways, merchandise, contests, and gratifications from the brands.
Several influencers such as Siddharth Kannan, Kishwar Merchant, amongst others, interacted with the star cast to spread awareness about the show. Bhavin Bhanushali, Vishal Pandey, Rohan Mehra, and other such influencers reviewed the show and gave the show a thumbs up. Apart from these, the makers went all out with social media. With them tapping on the moment of ‘Ronaldo Homecoming’, the marketers attempted to lap on the engagement with the occasion marketing post. To amplify the dialogues from Cartel, the makers launched an Instagram filter to build upon the theme. Leveraging Instagram Reels, the makers also shared social media posts in association with the actors.
The Cartel launch party was held to celebrate the launch of the show with the press. The launch party saw several popular celebs’ attendance. To continue with the momentum and build recall, several dialogue snippets and posts were released tapping on to reels and static posts, as part of the Cartel marketing strategy. To add netizens’ participation, the makers launched an Instagram filter to amplify the dialogues from Cartel. Leveraging the latest social media tools for engagement, the makers also launched Tenor and Giphy stickers with one-liners and catchy dialogues from the show.
As part of the Cartel marketing strategy, the team released several contest campaigns for engagement around the show. Partnering with Josh, Cartel launched the dialogue challenge where select influencers participated and created over 6000 videos, as part of the engagement activity. The winners stood a chance to win exclusive merchandise, subscription, and feature on the official ALTBalaji social media pages.
With a reach of 247 Mn+ and average impressions over 260 Million, no wonder, Cartel has become such a popular show in the country.
If you haven’t watched the series yet, head to the ALTBalaji app and watch all 14 episodes right away.
