Thrissur, a small city in central Kerala is home to the traditional folk dance of Pulikkali that is performed during Onam, the state's oldest festival.

However, the Swaraj Round ground that once saw 5000 people gather for this special event, now sees a dwindling audience.

Relentless to revive their culture, when lockdown was announced in 2020, the Ayyanthole Desam Pulikkali Sanghataka Samithi decided to perform via Facebook.

So, when lockdown was announced again in 2021, we shared their story to the Malayali diaspora across the world to amplify a #RoaringOnam.

We retold their tale through film - casting the original artists, dancers and musicians.Interactive elements like Facebook LIVEs with KP and an AR filter turned people into Pulis eventually saw blue-tick big wigs support our cause and celebrate with us!

Additionally, we also created static and video assets that showed the other aspects of Onam like Pookalam and Sadhya.

Staying true to the festival, the #RoaringOnam campaign aimed to amplify the efforts of the Ayyanthole Desam Pulikkali Sanghataka Samithi to reach the Malayali diaspora across the world.

Aiming to highligh their efforts, we retold their tale in the form of a film - casting the original artists, dancers and musicains from the troop. We even composed an original song written by Vinayak Sashikumar that served as the soundtrack.

We then added interactive elements like Facebook LIVEs with KP, member of the Ayyanthole Desam Pulikkali Sanghataka Samithi which saw him garner a great deal of support and stardom for his ingenuity and dedication to the heritage dance form.

To encourage participation, we also launced an AR filter on the Facebook App that turned people into Pulis - equipped with a roar that is triggered when you open your mouth and our #RoaringOnam banner!

Strategic Audience: People who are intentional in how they leverage Facebook's social graph to get more out of life, whether it be friends and family or beyond. They are purposefully curious, purposeful with impact, and are purposeful together.

Primary Audience: People of Kerala and the Malayali diaspora, between 18-49 years old.

Secondary Audience: Behavioural Retargeting 3 sec Video Viewers.

Objective: To understand if activating regional content on cultural moments resonates with the Audiences.

Campaign Overview: Capture the essence of Onam festivities and traditions and how community is being built during these times. While traditions were being reinvented to fit into a physically distant present, we showed how community can create new memories and come together for a greater purpose.

Messaging: "Facebook can help you celebrate a #RoaringOnam"

Channels: Facebook and Instagram

Duration: The campaign ran between 9 Aug 2021 - 27 Aug 2021

Implemented Assets: 8 posts published (6 videos, 2 statics)

Phases: After an initial intrigue building phase, we released our film. This was followed by amplification via Influencers and Ads. We then proceeded with our AR Filter Activation and Facebook Live featuring the followers of the Ayyanthole Desam Pulikkali Sanghataka Samithi page.

Total Reach - 209 Million

Positive Engagement - 4.56 *of ME/MI

Ad Recall - A roaring number of 8.3*

*stat. sig. brand lift

Positive sentiment - 76.74%^