Executive Summary: Kolaveri di Within three weeks of its release on YouTube, the Kolaveri Di video garnered 19 million views

and was shared by 6.5 million Facebook users. It was drawing more than 10,000 tweets daily by the end of its first online week. Having garnered over 45 million views so far, it has proved with its success that viral marketing works in India too. This case study explores what made Kolaveri the sensation it became and lists the elements that make up an ideal viral marketing campaign in India. It was agony and ecstasy in quick succession for leading Tamil movie star Dhanush last November. He recorded a song for the film 3 - a home production, in which he also plays the lead role - only to discover soon after that a disgruntled employee in his office had leaked it on YouTube. It put him and his wife Aishwarya, director of the film - she is also the daughter of the superstar Rajinikanth - in an embarrassing position, since Dhanush had just sold the film's music rights to Sony Music India. An early, unauthorised release of one of the songs could ruin the commercial prospects of the deal. "The song was the rough cut of Kolaveri Di. I was terrified," says Dhanush. There was nothing he could do to get the song off the site. "I realised to my chagrin that something leaked on the social media cannot be controlled," he adds. "I wanted to counter it, but how? I was at my wits' end," says Dhanush. What Kolaveri Di teach us about creating successful viral marketing campaigns is that, the product: Should evoke strong emotions. Should include humour. Should use all means to connect with audiences. Should have potential for parody. Should use simple language. Should generate curiosity. Should be carefully seeded through the life cycle. Should use multiple channels. Should avoid blatantly selling the product

He considered releasing a CD of the song as a single, but Sony Music informed him that this would take at least two weeks. "Then someone suggested making a video of the song and releasing that as well on YouTube as the official version," says Shridhar Subramaniam, President, Sony Music Entertainment, India and Middle East. "The idea was accepted and we scrambled to make the video overnight." This vital decision was to make all the difference. Sony Music hired a video camera and promptly shot a four minute video of Dhanush singing Kolaveri at A.R. Rahman's studio in Chennai. It was all done within half an hour and the video uploaded on YouTube on November 17 at 12.53 a.m.

What followed is now part of Indian music and viral marketing history. As if by magic, the song became a rage, effortlessly transcending language barriers - the first Tamil song, albeit with a smattering of English, to do so. In the first four days, the video had four million views, swelling to 19 million in three weeks. On Facebook 6.5 million users have shared it, while 40 radio stations have played it across the world. At last count in February-end, the video had registered over 46.5 millions views on YouTube and been downloaded by two million people on their mobiles. In the most unlikely way, Dhanush's agony thus turned to ecstasy. A Tamil movie star until then, it brought him a pan-India reputation. He is much sought after now by corporate houses to endorse their brands. "Doors opened for me," he says. "Kolaveri's success exposed me to the world of marketing and I realised how much I had been missing out on." The campaign was carefully designed to avoid sounding like a sales pitch. Some radio and TV channels got exclusive rights to use the song for two days. Noting the interest, news channels began discussing Kolaveri The film 3, earlier planned only in Tamil, will now be released in two more languages, Hindi and Telugu. But successful viral marketing campaigns such as Kolaveri do not happen every time, not even for Dhanush. His next song on video, a paean of praise to cricketing icon Sachin Tendulkar, Sachin Anthem, uploaded, like Kolaveri, on YouTube, has garnered only 4.9 million views in three weeks so far. "Every kind of content has the potential to go viral when the consumer becomes the marketing channel," says Prashanth Challapalli, Business Head, Jack in the Box Worldwide - the agency which designed Kolaveri's viral strategy. "But no one knows which particular one will go viral. All we can do is to create content that has the potential to do so. What are the elements that go into this kind of content? Something that evokes strong emotion is one. Kolaveri did: it is the song of a jilted lover pouring out his anguish. "Emotions, especially unhappy ones, have a strong viral stimulus," says Jayaram K. Iyer, who teaches social media marketing and branding at Loyola Institute of Business Administration (LIBA), Chennai. "So do narratives of an underdog beating the establishment. Both were present in Kolaveri." The experience of having failed in love is also almost universal. But to counter the sadness, the song also had humour. Humour is key to viral success - outstandingly successful videos on YouTube like 'Charlie Bit My Finger' or 'David at the Dentist' have plenty of it. The other aspect is to arouse curiosity. "It is critical to be intriguing. People should wonder what the campaign is all about," adds Iyer. Both Sony Music and Jack in the Box Worldwide invested intrigue into the process. "Non-Tamil speakers would not know what Kolaveri meant. Neither Dhanush nor any of us explained its meaning either," says Sony's Subramaniam. "It was a conscious strategy to evoke people's curiosity and get a conversation going." In the first few days after Kolaveri's release, a good deal of chatter

focused on what on earth the word meant. Around 12 per cent of all conversation on Twitter about Kolaveri was confined to this particular point. "The biggest myth is that viral marketing campaigns make themselves," says Iyer. "Campaigns have to be orchestrated." And indeed, once the official version was uploaded, Kolaveri was carefully managed at every stage. Sony Music began by putting a link to the video on its Facebook page, which has a million followers. Next, it began releasing tweets about the video, creating the #whythiskolaveri account on Twitter. There were 179 tweets on the first day, which rose by 200 per cent daily, to peak at 14,907 tweets on November 24. "For people to share the video, they had to first see it," says Subramaniam. "We put the YouTube link in all our tweets. We were confident that once a person sees the video, he would share it for sure." From the virtual world, the song was also shared with the real one towards the end of the first week, with radio stations and television channels being allowed to air it. FM station Radio Mirchi and MTV got exclusive rights to use the song for two days. Noting the stir in the entertainment space, news channels began discussing Kolaveri, further fuelling its popularity. Those who were drawn in and tweeted about it included mega star Amitabh Bachchan and leading industrialist Anand Mahindra. There were also critics, but the attacks only reinforced its now iconic status. "Kolaveri-D. Everyone is praising the robes, but the emperor is naked," tweeted lyricist Javed Akhtar. "Getting celebrities and influential people to seed the campaign through Twitter or Facebook pages is key,'' says Iyer, the LIBA professor. The success even saw parodies, says Challapalli. By the time Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar was publicly slapped by a young man on November 24, Kolaveri's meaning 'extreme frustration' or 'murderous rage' - had become sufficiently well known, and promptly many riposted: 'Why this kolaveri?' The IT industry produced a kolaveri parody of its own, while neighbour Pakistan created another. Sony Music could have invoked copyright and tried to suppress the parodies, but it did not. "People began to own the song and that helped," says Subramaniam. "Scope for cocreation is a critical factor for any viral campaign to succeed," adds Challapalli. Yet the campaign was also carefully designed to avoid sounding like a sales pitch. The film the song figures in, for instance, was never mentioned. "Content that sounds like a sales pitch fails," says Iyer. "Never use viral marketing as a sales channel. It puts people off instead of getting them excited." So in the end the video's success may not guarantee a super hit movie. Kolaveri has set the stage for a good opening but how successful the movie will be would depend on its content," says Subramaniam. Dhanush, naturally, is thrilled with the unexpected windfall. Has he identified the office employee who leaked the early version of Kolaveri? "No, but if I do find him, I will thank him," he says. But for the leak Kolaveri would never have become the viral marketing phenomenon it did.

KOLAVERI DI Phenomena How the social media revolutionized a simple song: I have watched around seven videos of Kolaveri Di- original version, Punjabi version, Exam version, Kids version, chipmunk version, Gujarati version, Malyalam version and the list continues. What is the magic behind this song with strange Tanglish lyrics? How did this song become the anthem of nation overnight? The answer is Social Media Marketing! This song was officially released on 16 November, 2011 by Sony Music. It was released solely as a recording version of song but it had already reached internet much before(around 31 October). But this fluke became a blessing in disguise for its Music composers as this song became an overnight hit and is most viewed song on You tube, with around 3.79 million views in less than a week and remained trending topic on twitter for three days. [UPDATE: Now this song has more than 50 million views on Youtube!] Social media experts have rated Kolaveri as one of best examples of Viral Marketing. Viral marketing in simple words would be word of mouth marketing-something that compels person to transmit it to other, the compelling factor can be- interesting, provocative, motivating, luring with gifts etc. In case of this peppy song it was the strangeness of its lyrics-Tanglish (Tamil and English) that rose curiosity among people. No TV or print media promotions or promotional tours could have won so much popularity to song what viral marketing has done. But since tendency of this phenomenon is viral, its outbreak can turn you upside down also i.e. it can turn negative too. However all turned well in case of Kolaveri, and it has become a youth anthem.

Reasons for National Sensation: The song definitely is catchy and makes you addicted, especially the foot tapping beats that makes you shake your head (at-least). The lyrics of the song is in English (mostly) sung in tamil style thus making this understandable worldwide, glad they have added the subtitle bringing to it a karaoke approach. The video of the song is very personalized depicting the recent national best actor award winner singing the song (showcasing his singing talents), his expressions and smile that shows soulful singing, presence of Shruti Hassan and Aishwarya at the studio that indicates involvement of the entire crew to make this song and lastly direction of Aniruddh a 21 year of young music director who has made this possible. The sequence of shoot is wise, basically hero should have been depicted in a pub with a glass of whisky in hand (typical bollywood style), the choice of shooting it in a studio is wise and very personalized. The movie marketing is well strategized with involvement of Social Media from day 1. The recording of the video at the studio with natural movements and expressions itself for the sake of promoting it on YouTube proves the efforts. Its a smart choice to make the National Award Winner actor winner Dhanush sing this song as his fan base is huge and I the initial spark on Social Media started from them.

The song is sensation in US, Australia, India and many other countries love the way the movie is promoted, a song can speak more than a trailer and thanks to Social Media for making this possible.