The Indian Premier League is as big as any festival in India, which is what makes it an unmissable moment for brands that want to win over people in this country. But with so many brands trying to connect with the audience, the challenge is communicating the brand’s core proposition in a way that creates an impact and enables recall without adding to the information overload. It isn’t an easy task doing justice to both the brand and the moment, particularly considering the viewers’ fatigue.
Moreover, IPL is a time when cricket fans passionately look for information on teams, players and previous and upcoming matches. Keeping these points in mind, upGrad created a fitting campaign that served both the brand and the consumer, with Glance Business, the lock-screen platform. Instead of promoting their data science courses the traditional way, upGrad brought in a twist – an unlikely pairing of data science and cricket – to create an entertaining series titled ‘The Data Scientwist’ featuring comedian and cricket enthusiast Vikram Sathaye.
The series highlighted how data science can be integrated into every aspect of life – even something as simple and fun as cricket and the workplace. Each video had Sathaye talk about team and player facts, drawing parallels with office jokes.
A new original piece of content was released before every match amounting to 30 videos in total – all conceptualised, shot and aired on lock screens around India by Glance Business. Through the partnership, upGrad not only promoted their offerings, but also attracted fans’ interest before each match with facts about the teams playing.
From a cheeky joke on pleasing the boss to a quip on teammates and appraisals, each piece of content was humorous and engaging.
Commenting on content marketing as a critical lever for marketers, Abhinav Mohan, VP – Monetization at Glance, said, “In times when audiences have low attention spans and consider ads to be interruptions, content-led marketing is a potent tool for driving awareness and consideration. At Glance, we are on a mission to make content marketing easy and scalable for our advertisers so that they can not only spread their message and proposition to millions but can also entertain their users and drive brand love.”
Arjun Mohan, CEO – India, at upGrad said, “Although we are in the education space, we have been working constantly to understand our consumers and create clutter-breaking content that is not just impactful but is also breaking stereotypes associated with the word ‘education’. Aligned with our vision of becoming the LifeLongLearning partner for millions, here our goal was to talk about Data Science in a way that felt easy and fun. The messaging required a seamless, simple, and relatable approach especially because people wouldn’t want to hear about upskilling or Data Science courses during IPL. The approach that Glance offered helped us get into a lighthearted conversation around cricket, office jokes, and Data Science. The lock screen of millions was an apt platform to launch an incredible piece of content like this.”
By bringing together two fields that are poles apart in an entertaining way, The Data Scientwist campaign proved to be a brilliant example of advertising that is innovative yet non-intrusive.
