HT's Kala Ghoda Arts Festival witnesses massive digital transition

Executed by Digital Quotient, the digital campaign involved a mobile first, multi-platform digital strategy that included a Twitter wall, Facebook, Instagram and more

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Mumbai | March 5, 2015

Hindustan Times Kala Ghoda Arts Festival 2015 (#HTKGAF) weaved in social media across each aspect of the festival and brought a whole new dimension to the entire experience. The HT Kala Ghoda Arts Festival was held in Mumbai between February 7 and 15.

This year's festival was all about 'Digital Power'. Digital Quotient had the mandate for the Kala Ghoda digital campaign. Understanding the need and intricacies of the festival, the team designed and executed a mobile first, multi-platform digital strategy. Using a combination of analytics and creativity, the digital strategy focused on educating, engaging and exciting users by effective targeting, content dissemination and crowd sourcing.

The theme for the festival this year was 'Sparsh' or touch, which was brought to life at the event by creating a live Twitter wall.

“The Twitter wall at the Hindustan Times Kala Ghoda Arts Festival was first and foremost a digital art installation, the only one at the festival. We also observed that since it was a real-time wall, people used it as a reference to understand events taking place around them and navigating their way around accordingly,” said Nitin Chaudhary, Business Head (Mumbai), Hindustan Times.

Girish Mahajan, Head – Strategy and Operations, Digital Quotient, added here, “This year at Kala Ghoda, we wanted to capture the mood of the people in the most tangible way possible. What better way to catch the pulse of the people than a Twitter wall? With an aim to highlight the theme of 'Sparsh' underlying the entire festival, we stayed in touch with the variety of emotions the attendees were experiencing.”

The team secured enormous buzz pre-event by popularising the festival hashtag #HTKGAF, creating and circulating Twitter postcards to express appreciation for participation, created excitement for people to share pictures to showcase the idea that with HT, KGAF was bigger and better than its earlier editions.

A pre-launch Facebook app was created for users to be a part of the club of commentators at the festival. Followed by a pre-event countdown contest asking people various questions related to the festival, which received a great response. A Twitter activity was organised, where people shared previous years' experience using #GoodTimeswithHTKgaf. On Twitter, #HTKGAF trended #3 in India and Mumbai for a period of five days receiving 2,500+ tweets, and 5 lakh impressions.

The chatter on Facebook and Twitter brought out the best activities and characteristics of the fest, providing a window for analysing enormous feedback and tracking the sentiment of visitors.

Digital Quotient also created an interactive responsive website featuring live tweets about #HTKGF, 'HT recommends section' and event scheduler on the home page. Revamped Kala Ghoda HT website got more than 1 lakh visits in a period of nine days. During this period, over 10 lakh people visited Hindustan Times Kala Ghoda Arts Festival.

The festival also debuted on Instagram this year. The account received 136 followers in nine days. Insta videos and updates clearly marked unique growth in fans through this property. Most of these fans also did an Instawalk, populating the account further.

The Kala Ghoda Arts Festival has a huge following, being a cult amongst Mumbai art lovers. The multicultural festival offers visitors a kaleidoscope of music, dance, theatre, literature, street stalls, films, workshops for adults and children, visual arts and heritage walks.

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