Getting an ABBY is the highest honour for advertising folks in India. But the recently held Goafest is not just about advertising, it is about outreach and entertainment across media and genre. Keeping up with the trends one such campaign The secret book launch went on to create history at India’s oldest and most revered advertising festival.
Upendra Namburi’s bestselling novel 8 Hours, published by Westland Publications, bagged 4 awards (2 gold, 1 silver & 1 bronze) at the prestigious Creative Abby Awards for the creative book campaign titled- The secret book launch. This is the highest number of awards won for a book in Abby history. The campaign was created by The Social Street and it won the awards under the following categories.
- Out of Home and Ambient Media Corporate, Media, Entertainment & Others – Gold
- Promotion/ Activation – Corporate, Media, Entertainment & Others – Gold
- Best Use of Digital Media – Best Use of Social Media – Silver
- Social Media (Co-Creation / Crowd sourcing / Response etc.) – Bronze
Book launches are usually a formal and tepid event. And empty chairs the norm. When it came to the launch of 8 hours, the third book from the best selling author Upendra Namburi, we decided to change the norm. A three pronged brief, it required the agency to fill the book launches with the right people, create intrigue about the book and it’s protagonist and finally drive sales.
The secret book launch involved taking the brave character of Aratrika Reddy outside the book and onto social media as a character. A character who managed to get over a thousand one-on-one connections with influencers in the digital space, strike conversations with them, get them to meet her at the launch event and cleverly convince those interacting with her to buy the book. ‘A Secret Book Launch’ by The Social Street delivered on all three counts.
Pratap Bose, Chairman & Co-Founder, The Social Street says “A brave character needed a brave team to come up with a brave idea. The Secret Book Launch campaign leveraged a professional networking platform in a way that’s never been seen before to launch a book. With over a 1000 connections in the virtual world, a fully packed launch event and getting the book 8 Hours sell out on a large e-commerce site, The Social Street delivered on an ingenious idea which worked in the real world. And I believe this brave thought was why the jury awarded it Two Gold, a Silver and a Bronze.”
Upendra Namburi said, “I am happy the way we got the protagonist to step out of the book and give readers a chance to interact with her. Westland has done a brilliant job in marketing 8 hours and I loved that they made Aratrika Reddy as the central character for the Campaign.”
8 Hours is the story of Aratrika Reddy, the charismatic CEO of ARYA Holdings Ltd. who has just 8 Hours to save her company from certain bankruptcy. The multi-billion dollar hotels to steel conglomerate, founded by her mercurial father, liquor baron Madhusudhan Reddy, has many suitors, all of them plotting a hostile takeover. Aratrika’s estranged husband, Siddhartha is one of them. His inside knowledge is the real ace up his sleeve. The Rathores, the Reddys’ arch-rivals are looking to buy ARYA too and thereby settle old scores.
Aratrika has to weave her way through a litany of lawyers, politicians, bankers, bureaucrats, investors, power brokers and her dreaded family. Behind the scenes, Jagannath Rao, her wily uncle, is playing a dangerous double game of manipulation. Her father Madhusudan is furiously pulling the strings from behind the scenes. To add to the confusion, overseeing the whole sale process is her old flame, Peter.
Over the course of a single night, 8 Hours to be precise, Aratrika must fight the demons at the gates of her company and those within. It’s a fight to the bitter end.
A fight that Aratrika does not want to lose…
About Upendra Namburi
A senior corporate executive in Banking & Financial Sevices and a digital & marketing professional, Upendra is married and has a son. Upendra was first bitten by the writing bug when he was invited to write for one of India’s leading finance dailies. It soon turned into a love affair that turned him into an avid blogger and finally made him take the plunge into the unchartered waters of the Novel. Upendra now takes complex subjects like banking, consumer goods, mergers and acquisitions and turns them into nail-biting thrillers, making those dull and dreary numbers come alive. But he really hasn’t shifted his focus as such, for he still thinks of his books as numbers: 31, 60 and 8. 8 Hours is the third book in the Numbers series.
About The Social Street
The Social Street is an award-winning, full-services marketing and communications agency incepted in 2015. As a new-age digitally-driven organisation, The Social Street offers an alternate approach to existing problems, evaluating business issues through the communications lens.
With a footprint across key cities in India, The Social Street’s services are designed to offer an integrated yet seamless solution across the communications continuum including Retail, Shopper, Out of Home, Events, Promotions, Activations, Youth, Sports Marketing, Media, Digital, Content and Consultancy.
The Social Street recently enjoyed the honour of ‘Creative Agency of the Year’ and ‘Still Craft Specialist of the Year’, with a total of 42 Media & Creative Abbys at the prestigious Goafest 2018 organised by The Advertising Agencies Association of India and The Advertising Club.