Uncovering Pinu Patel’s Social Media Presence. Is Character Driven Marketing through Social Media viable in India?
Here is a homegrown Social Media Marketing Campaign where a character by the name of Pinu Patel has been created. Vinay Pathak seems to be playing Pinu Patel in the film Straight – Pinu Patel Ki Tedhi Medhi Love Story.
To create some initial buzz, the marketers launched a series of videos and teasers (2 months back)
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They also launched a website - http://www.pinupatel.com/ to give the audience an insight into his life. The Website contains shots of London (where Pinu lives) and his restaurant (appropriately titled GAYLORD).
Apart from that, there are videos of his restaurant, London going berserk after India won the T20 world cup, and the opening of the London bridge. There is also a blog that Pinu Patel writes (which tells you a lot about the character that he plays).
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The teasers have a wide social media presence. Apart from Youtube, i found them on Metacafe, iShare and also MySpace (only 58 plays on MySpace at the time of writing this post. An indication of the sorry state of affairs at MySpace India).
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Desimad is the company powering Pinu Patel’s campign (as stated on his website). They have a character by the name of Taki Sawant (a spoof on the fiery Rakhi Sawant) who they have merged with this campaign. She has been used to ‘expose’ who Pinu Patel is and cement his identity as a virgin. Through the course of the interview, she gives us a peek into his life, his rejections, and his tendencies. A pretty crafty piece of work and a smart strategy that builds the brands of Pinu as well as Taki. (expect Taki to be a part of the marketing for more films in the future).
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Overall, the strategy seems to have got a good mix of entertainment, gimmick value, and content that can make people curious about Pinu, the central character of the film – curious enough to make them watch the film.
I don’t know the exact numbers of the hits on the official Pinu Patel website (this would give a good indication of how successful the teaser campaign was). The teaser videos themselves have had an average number of views on YouTube. All the teasers put together have close to 7000 views. They even had a teaser where Vinay Pathak himself talks about Pinu Patel.
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There are links to Pinu’s presence on social media from his website as well. A quick look shows that:
On Facebook, Pinu has 633 friends.
On Orkut, he has 38 friends.
On LinkedIn (his profile was unavailable – btw, WHY LinkedIn?)
On his website he has about 36 friends.
The numbers on Orkut are disappointing to say the least. On Facebook, its a farily good number but nothing to write home about.
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Its interesting to note that the trailers of the film (2 trailers that i found on Youtube) have an accumulated number of more than 4,00,000 views. They thump the teaser views by a mile. One of the reasons to that i think lies in the thumbnail. Very cleverly chosen.
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As an aside, there is also a film review video which has a good number of views. For the review too, the thumbnail probably does the trick. The lesson? Show some booty on your thumbnail and you will get views from Indian audiences (or so it seems 
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The very fact that the teasers got such poor views as compared to the trailer makes you ask the question: Does the strategy work? Was the investment in teasers worthwhile when we were going to get trailer views anyway?
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I believe that yes, it was worthwhile. Especially in this case. The teasers and the trailers were meant to be intertwined. The content around Pinu probably raised some initial curiousity. The ‘uncovering’ of Pinu by Taki was also a smart way of using social media to give a new twist to a film trailer.
It should also be noted that the teasers were extremely low quality, sort of avant garde – no money seems to have been spent on making them.
There also seems to be no official film website so pinupatel.com, the teaser website doubles up as the website of the film (or so it should have been).
Overall, i believe that the teasers were a smart move to raise some curiousity and provide some information about a character that audiences would have otherwise not been interested in. Also remember that this movie is urban focussed and is also probably aimed at the International market. So using social media is a good idea.
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Will this work for a blockbuster ShahRukh Khan movie? Maybe not as well as other strategies can work.
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What were the good things about this campaign?
- Wide Reach of videos across channels (YouTube, MySpace, Metacafe, iShare)
- Inclusion of other characters (Taki)
- Teasers
- Content on the website that is relateable (the pictures, videos etc.)
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The Not so Good things i.e. Pitfalls
- Duration of the campaign (less than a month)
- The website pinupatel.com does not have the trailer (even after Pinu was revealed), nor does it reveal who Pinu Patel is which is a little stupid considering elsewhere, people already know who Pinu is.
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- During the teaser period i don’t think the Desimad link on the website was necessary. It takes away from the ‘genuinness’ of the campaign.
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Overall however, i believe it was a smart campaign executed decently well. There were a few glitches. Nevertheless its a case study that can be showcased and paves a way for social media marketeers in India to instill some confidence in their clients if the strategy is well thought out.
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