For Diwali – the festival of prosperity, in the kind of year that is 2020, we wanted to tell a story that captured the very essence of what so many amongst us have been doing. Which is, they’ve been coming together and selflessly going the extra mile to be there for others.

Brief was to design a manifestation of the Facebook More Together campaign for the India’s biggest festival of prosperity – Diwali.

A certain part of the country has almost grown up with how Facebook has evolved. But for the vast majority of our country who’ve been introduced to Facebook recently thanks to the data revolution, the power of Facebook remains to be experienced first-hand. We hope to keep inspiring those who are new-to-the-internet of the wonderful possibilities and power of Facebook.

Diwali, the festival of prosperity upon us, we knew we had an opportunity to tell an extraordinary story that spoke to the moment. After all, 2020 and prosperity simply don’t sit well together. So, we thought why not try and bring alive the old maxim that ‘prosperity too grows only when we share it with others. What better time to inspire people to do so than the current difficult one we all find ourselves in the midst of. The idea behind the campaign was that many people have faced difficulties in this period in different ways. However, that has not taken away people’s spirit to do good for others, which is why people relate to the film. Almost everybody has endured varying degrees of struggle this year. And yet, a lot of us have also managed to do good for others.

There’s an age old Indian saying – Prosperity grows when you share it with others. This was especially prescient in a year like 2020 and served as our strategic plank. To tell a story of what a lot of people in India were doing, which is, they were coming together and selflessly going the extra mile to be there for others. Often by harnessing, the power of Facebook to amplify the good within us for the greater good.

One of the challenges faced in making the film was the time constraints as the festival of Diwali cannot be pushed, and setting up the feeling of lockdown near the festive season. The opening sets up both the gravity & the largeness of what Pooja is trying to accomplish. She isn’t a mega-rich business owner. But she believes she can do some good, even if it means stretching herself and her resources that get much thinner and she goes all in.

The story of the film spanned about 6 months and the production team had to recreate the atmosphere of the early days of March right up to the buzz of pre-Diwali days, all this keeping the strictest testing and safety protocols.

Facebook has always believed in the power of people and connections at scale. That power, we continue to believe, can be leveraged for a variety of reasons.

Not only did it break the news cycle. It broke the internet in India. Drove 228K reshares (19x compared to typical video reshare per view),61M views of which 6M organic views on facebook. With 68.9M views of which 900k organic,25K reactions,84% of likes on Youtube. Earned 22M reach, celebrated by 27 media exposures across leading mainline & marketing media, global publications. Generating 544 million impressions. 122 million completed views. For around 900 million minutes of viewing. Across multiple video platforms. The ad was picked up by wide range of news channels. Positive social sentiment shot up during the campaign period