HBO is quite a niche channel in India that only appeals to the urban youth who are more exposed to international culture and entertainment. These people are always on the internet and love taking selfies. Which is why, we thought that the Selfie in Space campaign would really appeal to them.

To promote the premiere of Gravity, we launched the Selfie in Space campaign that would take one selfie to the edge of space. For this, we urged people to share their selfies with us through our microsite and social media pages. The winning selfie was picked from these selfies and launched to the edge of space.

In December of 2014, HBO India was premiering Gravity as its blockbuster of the year. Our task was to get people excited about the premiere. And so, we launched the Selfie in Space campaign that would take one selfie to the edge of space, using a very low-cost weather balloon and GoPro. For this, we started urging people to share their selfies through our microsite and social media pages.

Within 15 days, the selfies started pouring in. Including selfies with national and international celebrities. The campaign had over 52 million impressions. We received 5,688 selfies and 110,439 clicks from promoted posts.

Not only that, we also broke competition records (Star Movies with 30 million impressions) to become the most successful digital campaign in its segment in India. The cost per post engagement was $o.o2 and the cost for per website ad click was $0.12.

The TV entertainment market in India is dominated by cricket and Bollywood. Which is why, these channels get the support of all the biggest sponsors, and are able to aggressively promote their content. So when HBO had to promote Gravity as the blockbuster of the year, our total budget eventually stretched to just $12,000. So the task was to try and stand out in a category filled with very aggressive marketing, and get people excited about the premiere.