In India, it was a first-of-its-kind show on general entertainment television, scheduled to air in the primetime entertainment slot.

To that end, our campaign set out to achieve the following objectives:

Create awareness for Shark Tank, as the world’s greatest business-reality show, finally coming to India

Ignite conversations around entrepreneurship, business and startups beyond boardrooms and throw them wide open for the general populace

Empower the aspirations of people interested in the entrepreneurial and business ecosystem

Familiarise the Indian audience with the Sharks with an intent to maximise credibility

All bespoke social media handles for Shark Tank India became a fun, real-time almanac for all things entrepreneurial.

As a reality show catering majorly to the working-class Indian audience, the creative idea was to use the pre-launch phase – from the call for entries to the airing of episodes – to familiarise viewers with the business ecosystem and its jargon by adopting a colloquial tone, which allowed the target audience to effortlessly join the conversation online.

Our social media content amplified the show’s appeal with glimpses of participating Indian entrepreneurs who were breaking stereotypes with unique business ideas.

Another aspect of the creative idea was to showcase the potential reward that comes with all the risks of starting one’s own business. This was important because a middle-class Indian upbringing almost always advises against entrepreneurship, instead favouring the safety of a steady job.

As mentioned earlier, the Indian middle-class society conditions one to look at entrepreneurship as a risky ambition that most often leads to failure. This was our primary audience – General Entertainment Channel viewers – who had to be introduced to and familiarised with the show’s unique concept. Our secondary audience were founders of budding start-ups: aspiring entrepreneurs, who were relatively more familiar with the business ecosystem.

Our strategy hinged on the propagation of three core elements

Showcase Sharks as successful, home-grown entrepreneurs and proof of reward beyond the risks

Hold up the interplay of human emotions, cultural values, and business ideas as seen on the show to maximise relatability

Package intense business conversations from the show with elements of entertainment – a language that our audience not only understands but enjoys as well

Fresh handles on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn became the digital mouthpieces for promoting the above.

The campaign was executed on social media across four phases, from June 2021 to February 2022.

Phase 1: Registration

We introduced Shark Tank to India as the world’s No. 1 business reality show.

Encouraging participation was key. Call for entries were targeted to start-up incubators, IIT and IIM alumni.

Phase 2: Pre-Launch

Sharks were introduced with the brands they had launched. Interactive content like “Guess The Shark” and “Shark Tank Dictionary” was developed to engage and educate viewers.

Phase 3: Launch

A 100-hour countdown on social media built intrigue for the launch. After each episode, highlights were published.

Phase 4: Post-Launch

Creative content engaged and updated the audience about the participants’ success after each national broadcast.

Examples:

Which pitch would you invest in?

Shark Lesson of the Day

Product Bio

Pitchers' Bytes

Moments of the Week

Shark Personalities

Guess the Shark

#SharkTalks LIVE session

Shark Awards

Twitter Spaces LIVE conversation

Shark Tank India emerged as the most-discussed TV content in the nation’s recent history, and entrepreneurs turned into national celebrities for the first time ever.

The last-known strength of the handles that started with 0 followers:

Instagram - 858,000

Facebook - 518,978

Twitter - 64,100

Across platforms, the campaign generated

593 million in Impressions,

435 million in accounts Reached,

168 million Engagements

And molded the online sentiment to gather & build support for the country’s entrepreneurial potential.

The conversation around Shark Tank India grew to compel appreciation, participation, and user-generated content from prominent accounts beyond our target audience:

Union Ministers

Local civic body

Government of India

A-list comedians

Category-leader brands

Content creators and brands leveraged the Shark Tank pitching format in their videos and ads respectively, for commercial purposes!

Our campaign took an unknown show to the forefront of Indian pop culture in 8 months, with $0 media expenditure!