Case study: How Netflix India created buzz around Kota Factory’s season 2 launch by leveraging Jeetu Bhaiya’s fanbase

• This case study decodes how Netflix’s Kota Factory created excitement around its new season launch through a 360-marketing campaign.
• Netflix decided to leverage Kota Factory’s central character, Jeetu Bhaiya’s fandom, whose philosophy, dialogues and emotions had generated massive mass appeal during season 1.
• The Title Marketing for Kota Factory Season 2 was done by Netflix India in collaboration with The Rabbit Hole Agency (Zoo Media).

With characters that resonated with the audience and real life-like conversations that are permanently etched into the minds of viewers, Kota Factory’s Season 2 was one of the most widely anticipated shows on Netflix India. Even those who might have not seen the show are now familiar with ‘Jeetu Bhaiya’ and his worldly wisdom, thanks to the title marketing campaign driven by Netflix India, hand in hand with The Rabbit Hole Agency (Zoo Media).

Insight

i) The promotions of Kota Factory 2 was based on the show’s central character ‘Jeetu Bhaiya’ whose philosophy, dialogues and emotions had generated massive mass appeal. He represented that one mentor, teacher, at times dependable friend, everyone needs in life, to help answer life’s questions beyond academics.

ii) Jeetu Bhaiya’s popular philosophies were interpreted as ‘Out of Syllabus’ making it the theme for the campaign i.e. most of life’s lessons are learned from experiences that are out of the text books and the classroom. That life truly is much more than just academic achievements or failures. This insight was used in all assets for the title marketing promotions of the series.

Innovation
The title marketing of Kota Factory - 2 caught the attention of many, not only for the engaging video content but because of the seamless way in which the insights were adapted and implemented to suit various platforms and events including Youtube, Quora, IPL Ads, Twitter and Print Media.

1. Teaser Phase
2. Jeetu Is Back - Marketing Launch with Youtube Pre-Rolls

Kota Factory’s first season ended with the audience’s favourite character ‘Jeetu Bhaiya’ gone missing, leaving audiences restless, curious and wanting Jeetu Bhaiya back. The team leveraged this sentiment and launched the promotions of Season 2 with Jeetu Bhaiya addressing the audience’s most asked question “Kota Factory ka season 2 kab ayega?” in an interesting YouTube pre-roll.

2. #OutOfSyllabus - Real Talk on Instagram with Real Engineers
For Engineer’s Day, the team collaborated with engineers who had transitioned to become influencers to share real-life examples of the lessons that they have learned #OutOfSyllabus. These meticulously selected influencers such as Mythpat, R J Abhinav, Tanzeel Khan, Rahul Dua and 30 more creators shared black-n-white selfies of themselves from their engineering days, with a caption that spoke of their experiences while studying engineering as well as certain insights that helped them reach where they are today.

Vishnu Kaushal: This picture is from my graduation, I’ve never really talked about my college much, so here goes that- I happen to be a computer science engineer yet the only thing I know about computers is video editing. Even though by 2nd year I pretty much hated what I was studying, there’s something about the whole experience of being in college, making new friends, taking up new challenges that really shapes the person you’re gonna become.

Take my example, I practically did everything other than what I was supposed to do. Sang a terrible song on guitar the first day, joined the ‘modelling’ club (which was a big flex in college, well but, I was still single throughout out so…), joined a not-for-profit organisation that helped me meet hundreds of young kids like me passionate to change the world. I think the thing I did learn was how incredibly unique people & their stories are, and I saw myself become a more compassionate person. Between these stories, I found a little bit of who I am & who I might want to be I think that’s what I took from my college.

No wonder engineers end up working in every department other than their technical department.

Here’s to having a love-hate relationship to your college ����

Wishing all the engineers a Happy Engineers Day!

Tanya Khanjijow: I vividly remember when I was preparing for engineering entrance exams in school, I would sit in the corner of my class even during recess trying to prepare for mock tests or for practising problems! �� Ekdum loner Wali life ho gayi thi because I had to give up on randomly hanging out with friends or skipping family functions, movies, tv shows etc. When I finally secured a place in DTU, I tasted the contentment of achievement for the first time ever in my life! And it was a wonderful feeling. Mujhe laga, iske baad college life toh bahut straightforward hogi. Little did I know that it was going to be a big life lesson in itself.

Last minute studies se le ke, group discussions, from finding my love for travel to saving up every penny to be able to travel or struggling to find like-minded friends. I’m really grateful that I found to travel in those days and backpacking quickly became my love. I would again skip every possible occasion to only save my pocket money for travel. Thankfully I also found some friends who taught me a little about photography. But fir bhi somehow I managed to ace last-minute syllabus coverage before exams & manage attendance (haha!) to continue travelling. Kaafi kuch Sikhaya hai college life ne. Good and bad moments alike!

So, the day I graduated, I thought it was going to be the end of an era or the beginning of something new, little did I know that the journey itself was everything I needed, to be where I am today. What I learned from surviving four years of engineering college, is that zindagi me har type ka lesson zaroori hai. And sometimes you don’t just learn subjects when you’re a student, but leave college with some real life lessons. And if you’re lucky, even your passion!

Wishing all the engineers a Happy Engineers Day!

Kota Factory Season 2 arriving on 24th September, only on Netflix.

3. Netflix’s Kota Factory takes on IPL 2021
With India watching the IPL, the team had to ensure audience awareness was created. In an industry first, Kota Factory was advertised on Hotstar during IPL 2021 wherein viewers watched the show’s protagonists chalk out fun analogies and drawing a parallel between IPL and IIT entrance exam preparations in 2 brand films.

Trending at India #4 on Twitter with Brand and Creator Banter - #JeetuBhaiyaOP

Ahead of the release, the team encouraged Twitterati to seek life advice from Jeetu Bhaiya, fondly dubbed as the ‘OG’ teacher by fans of the show. Various influencers such as Aishwarya Mohanraj, Srishti Shukla, Sagarcasm and brands such as Tinder, Spotify, Dream 11, Myntra organically participated in the activity and asked questions with the hashtag #JeetuBhaiyaOP. These questions were met with responses in the character’s quintessential style, which had Twitter buzzing and the #JeetuBhaiyaOP trending at #4.

5. Jeetu Bhaiya even took over Quora!
While most marketers may not consider Quora as the go-to destination for a film marketing campaign, the promotions of Kota Factory leveraged the knowledge-sharing platform in the most unique format, making it one of the biggest and most engaging highlights of the strategy. Using Quora’s feature of “Promoted Answers”, the team launched a Netflix India page, specifically for the promotion of Kota Factory 2, to connect with the students appearing for IIT exams.

Known for being one of the most difficult entrance tests, Kota Factory’s promotions addressed the issues, challenges, and doubts faced by students in the style of various characters from the show.. Some answers were also dialogues from the show. In a short span of time, Netflix’s Quora page had over 15 million answer views, making it the ‘Most Viewed Writer’ across all IIT and JEE preparation related Topics on Quora!. The quirky responses written, drove immense engagement.

Jeetu Bhaiya Ke Funde on Youtube

Since Jeetu Bhaiya is known for his out-of-the-box teaching methods and efforts to include real-life instances to drive home his point, the team created content for YouTube highlighting this facet of the character. The video reached over 2.47 million views a day prior to the launch and left the viewers intrigued, moved and curious to see what season 2 had in store for them.

B) Release Day
Truth Bombs with Every Coaching Class Ever on Youtube!

Coaching classes in India are a subculture in itself. The teams created a satirical sketch called “Every Coaching Class Ever” representing the cons some coaching classes tend to pull on naive parents and children except for Jeetu Bhaiya’s of course. The video earned 2.6 million views on YouTube.

Taking a dig at Coaching Classes with Print Media

Through the years we’ve seen ugly number games on the front page of the newspaper where coaching classes parade students based on their ranks. People need to be reminded that a child is not a success meter, they are much more than that. Taking a cue from, ‘Out of Syllabus’, this coaching institute ad didn’t talk about the successful IIT ranks, but successful lessons learnt ‘Out of Syllabus’.

C) Post Launch Promotions

Charm Battles (Mayur V/S Ranjan FTW)

This #CharmBattle was every nerd’s delight. This fun format saw Mayur More and Ranjan Raj battle it out to impress Ahsaas Channa. With pick up lines testing one’s math and physics to see which actors had the most ‘chemistry’. This fun video proved that engineers can be charming too in their own geeky way. The video has garnered over 1.54 million views.

Mess Food with OKTested

Popular Opinion is that Mess food is unanimously despised by everyone whereas on the other hand, “Maa ke haath ka khaana” is unanimously celebrated. In Kota Factory - 2, as mess food and home food is highlighted and talked about in the episodes, the team collaborated with the hosts of Scoop Whoop’s Ok Tested to taste 5-6 dishes and guess whether the dishes were prepared in a college mess or by moms. The video garnered 312K views.

Results:

• The #OutOfSyllabus activation on Instagram with 30 leading influencers generated over 130K likes and over 6000 comments.
• #JeetuBhaiyaOP on Twitter was not only trending at #4 but also resulted in 1.6M impressions and a total engagement of 20,667.
• The activation on Quora saw over 19 million answer views, making the Netflix India page, the ‘Most Viewed Writer’ across most of the popular IIT and JEE preparation related Topics on the platform
• YouTube Branded Video Content
  
  • ‘Jeetu Bhaiya Ke Fundey’ garnered over 2.5 million views
  • ‘Every Coaching Class Ever’ garnered over 2.7 million views
  • ‘The Charm Battles’ resulted in over 1.6 million views
  • ‘Can You Identify The Mess Food? | Ok Tested’ resulted in 450K views
• The Print Ad gained over 600 organic comments and shares over Linkedin amongst consumers and stalwarts of the advertising industry.