MUMBAI: For sometime now, publisher Worldwide Media has been churning out video content which has been making its way on television or on the web. Among the shows it has executed figure: The Good Homes show (in association with channel TLC and Hafele), Famously Filmfare (Colors Infinity), Nexa Journeys on AH1 (Discovery) and Secret Ingredients (for Michelin Tyres).
And the latest to come out of its content studio (headed by Vidyut Patra) is the scripted reality web series Intern Diaries – an eight part show. As the title suggests, it is all about the experiences of two young girls as they intern – where else but at Worldwide Media fashion title Grazia. The first two episodes were released digitally on 15 May and with two being released every week, since then. The last of the two episodes are slated to go out next week.
“Given the current consumption pattern on digital, video content draws the maximum eyeballs and hence when it came to expanding Grazia’s audience base on digital, we thought of creating an original web series that would resonate its brand tonality - being young, easy chic, uber-cool and high street. Grazia , being a fashion and beauty brand catering to a younger audience and having interns working with the team round the year, the idea of Intern Diaries was formed,” Worldwide Media (Grazia’s parent) business strategy and special projects head Sunil Wuthoo explains, giving the backdrop to the series.
To Worldwide Media’s advantage, Lever brand Ponds BB+ latched on to the idea and agreed to associate with it. The reason: a similar target group of young female audience mainly into the world of fashion and glamour.
The show features two girls - Tara and Anika, who are interning at Grazia and are aspiring to make a mark in the world of high fashion, style and Bollywood. And according to the Grazia website, the interns are seen working their way through tasks, completing them to the magazine’s standard. The web series takes “the audience through a journey of real situations, fashion emergencies and challenges from a millennial’s point-of-view and is relatable.”
Because it was shot in the Grazia offices, it features its editor Meharnaz Dhondy and members of the magazine’s brand team. To add to the glam quotient, fashion icons such as Manish Malhotra, Anita Dongre, Masaba Gupta, Sonakshi Sinha and Payal Singhal were roped in to interact with the Anika and Tara in scripted situations.
Says Wuthoo: “We have shown them going through the daily grind like planning magazine covers or some or the other challenges like visiting a designer store to source clothes for a model shoot. And that’s where they get to interact with the star or the designers.”
Line production was assigned to Bodhi Tree Multimedia. “The team was kept small to about 10-12 members so as not to disrupt the actual day-to-day functioning of the magazine and most of the shoot was done in all real locations across Mumbai,” reveals Bodhi Tree Multimedia co-founder Mautik Tolia.
Promotion was in three phases - pre-teaser, teaser and promo. While the teaser phase was used to boost the excitement, pre-teaser phase saw celebrities talking about their own internship experience. Those videos were posted on Grazia’s social media pages as well as on the featured celebrities’ social media pages.
This was further followed by the launch of the microsite that acted as a hub for this show, which not only hosted the episodes, but also a lot of ancillary content around the show including details about the characters and their fictional lives.
“We also sustained the interest of the viewers by connecting them with the characters through Facebook live sessions and publishing key moments from the show on various platforms. All of this is also being cross promoted across various social assets belonging to brands like Filmfare, Femina, TopGear, Hello! India, which further helped reach out to a young demographic,” says Wuthoo.
At the time of writing, Intern Diaries had manage to generate close to 10 million impressions, 2.5 million views, with a reach of 8 million.
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