Mumbai: Colors has announced the romantic-fantasy-drama ‘Tere Ishq Mein Ghayal’. Sparking excitement amongst fans with the promising trio of Karan Kundrra, Gashmeer Mahajani and Reem Sameer Shaikh, the channel curated an innovative campaign to celebrate the season of love, with a twist. ‘Tere Ishq Mein Ghayal’ is a compelling story of a girl next door Eisha and werewolf brothers Armaan and Veer who test the dangerous limits of love and survival. This storyline inspired an intriguing three phase marketing campaign that began with building intrigue for the show with massive hoardings of large red hearts. The same hearts were clawed after the night of the full moon, shocking the onlookers. Well timed on the cusp of Valentine’s Day, the mystery of the clawed hearts took over the social media by storm, garnering an unprecedented reach of 10 Mn and over 300K conversations.

The campaign kicked off with billboards of big hearts emerging in cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Lucknow, Kanpur, Agra, Bhopal and Indore on 3 February. It seemed that these cities were spreading love and cheering passers-by. The second phase of the campaign unfolded after the full moon night on 5 February, the perfect occasion to introduce a shocker. On this night, these hearts on hoardings and the hearts placed at iconic selfie points in Mumbai, Lucknow, Kanpur, Bhopal, Agra, etc. donned claw marks. These hearts piqued the curiosity of onlookers, who came up with many interesting theories about their appearance while posting stories on social media platforms. The lead actors of the show Gashmeer Mahajani and Karan Kundrra along with celebrities and media influencers Amit Sadh, Ankur Tewari, Nayandeep Rakshit, Shravan Shah, Siddharth Kanan, Karishma Singh, Viral Bhayani and Manav Manglani among others posted pictures of the clawed hearts sharing their curiosity on social media platforms.

Heightening the curiosity further, soon CCTV video evidence surfaced and it showed the footage of the perpetrator, who looked like the werewolf versions of actors Karan Kundrra and Gashmeer Mahajani. The speculation of werewolves on a prowl and of it being a marketing stunt were rife. Taking the internet by storm, these theories were further amplified through various news channels featuring the CCTV video and building the speculation around the perpetrator. This was coupled with radio integrations and digital conversations adding on to the anticipation around the campaign.

In the final phase of the campaign, it was revealed that the clawed hearts were part of the channel’s upcoming show with the unveiling of a captivating poster by the lead actors of the show. This poster summed up the entire campaign and underlined the show’s theme. Right from screen-shattering entrances to the actors spilling the beans on the campaign, the last phase heightened the anticipation surrounding the show.

Speaking about the campaign, Viacom18 head marketing & digital Sapangeet Rajwant said, “Colors has always curated ways to leverage the flavour of the season and bring innovation and disruption in the marketing sphere. We wanted to ride on the month of love and associate our campaign with it to echo the mystery of Tere Ishq Mein Ghayal. This campaign stirred interest amongst onlookers, and it led to audience engagement on a deeper level. The curiosity was sustained by ensuring visibility for the clawed hearts and quenched with the unveiling of the show’s poster. We are certain that this disruptive campaign has created the right amount of buzz for the show.”