Prothom Alo turns to a gangster to help boost subscriptions

By Paula Felps

INMA

Nashville, Tennessee, USA

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When Prothom Alo wanted to drive subscriptions, it knew it needed some outside help. So it brought in the biggest villain it could find.

The company rolled out its OTT initiative, Chorki, in July 2021 and found immediate success. Although Bangladesh had other OTT platforms, none offered the kind of Bangali-centric content provided by Chorki.

Initially, the audience responded enthusiastically to the new platform, and subscriptions were strong.

However, by the second year, the subscription growth rate began dropping off. Bangladeshi audiences weren’t accustomed to paying to watch content, and Prothom Alo knew it needed to find a way to rekindle that interest.

Chorki, the OTT platform of Prothom Alo, enjoyed a successful first year that included the breakout original series, “Myself Allen Swapan.”
Chorki, the OTT platform of Prothom Alo, enjoyed a successful first year that included the breakout original series, “Myself Allen Swapan.”

Enter the gangster

To attract interest and create a buzz that would pay off with more subscriptions, the marketing team enlisted the help of Allen Swapan, a fictional character and protagonist of the original series, Myself Allen Swapan.

In the series, Swapan is an infamous drug dealer who was reportedly killed in crossfire during a narcotics raid, but shortly after his death, a mysterious man who closely resembles Swapan appears in another city using a different name.

The series had a strong following, and Swapan easily emerged as the most-recognised character on the Chorki platform. With the true fate of the drug kingpin still unknown to audiences, he became the obvious choice of characters to engage audiences and draw more interest to the platform.

To launch the campaign, the marketing team created a social media account for the fictitious bad boy and sent friend requests to every prominent celebrity in the country. This promotional approach had never been used before, so it immediately caught the attention of audiences. Celebrities began sharing his profile on social media, and the account went viral.

The campaign began with creating a social media profile for the villain, then friending celebrities and commenting on posts..
The campaign began with creating a social media profile for the villain, then friending celebrities and commenting on posts..

But Swapan was just getting started; next, he started making funny comments and posts on the pages of prominent influencers and even began sharing live videos and chatting through Facebook Messenger.

Fans quickly picked up on the growing momentum and couldn’t get enough of him.

Turning videos viral

As the campaign gained traction, the Chorki team created four short videos which quickly garnered about 1.5 million views on Facebook alone. The enthusiasm of the fans resulted in thousands of reactions and comments — along with a growing curiosity about what would happen next.

Four short videos featuring the gangster attracted about 1.5 million views on Facebook.
Four short videos featuring the gangster attracted about 1.5 million views on Facebook.

Facebook wasn’t the only place where fans could connect with Swapan; thanks to a well-crafted influencer campaign, TikTok soon was flooded with dance routines to the popular, catchy song, “Boyam Pakhi,” which was featured in the series.

Nearly 1 million recreations of the dance were shared on the platform. On YouTube, the song and trailer picked up more than 15 million views and 4,000 comments.

Soon, news media companies became fascinated by the unique campaign and began covering the return of the gangster, publishing more than 100 stories about his arrival. The Bangladesh-based meme company Rantages also joined in the fun, and soon memes of the villain were being shared across every social media platform.

Allen Swapan was also a hit on TikTok, even inspiring a dance routine.
Allen Swapan was also a hit on TikTok, even inspiring a dance routine.

Turning curiosity into subscriptions

Of course, the big question at Prothom Alo was whether this campaign would translate into subscriptions or if it would just be a novelty that was soon forgotten. By making the gangster the face of its campaign, Chorki picked up a nationwide buzz and “Myself Allen Swapan” landed on the must-see content list.

Ultimately, this villain turned out to be a hero for Prothom Alo, smashing KPI expectations by more than 120% and boosting Chorki’s subscriptions by more than 300%.

About Paula Felps

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