Nissan short film casts movie stars through Facebook

ASIA-PACIFIC – INDIA, MARCH 29, 2012: Nissan took the power of social media to greater heights by making the first Bollywood film to cast its characters through Facebook users.

Developed by independent digital agency AKQA, the campaign launched in October 2011 to hunt for the co-stars of Bollywood’s hottest actor Ranbir Kapoor in the short movie titled "New Star of India." Fans need only to upload a short video clip of them dancing, and auditions were also conducted in shopping malls across India. 

Among over 2,300 fans, 100 were selected based on the number of votes then were cut down to 20 lucky winners chosen by the team and Ranbir Kapoor, the lead actor in the film.

The movie, directed by Ahmed Khan and shot at Ramoji film city Hyderabad, India, is about uniting two lovers in the world of Nissan. The 5-minute short film will be launched primarily on Nissan India’s Facebook and Youtube channels, and potentially on other channels.

This campaign gave rise to Nissan’s community engagement of nearly 500,000 fans on Facebook.

David Parkinson, GM Social and Digital communications EMEA and India at Nissan commented: "The New Star of India campaign has been immensely successful in helping Nissan build an emotional connection with Indian youth, and of course given us a great platform to continue the conversation with India at scale."

Nissan is the first brand to use social media to create a platform for aspiring youth across India to show their talents and actually share the screen with one of their biggest heroes. “People like us from the middle-class in India could never have dreamt of actually meeting Ranbir, but now we’ve actually shared the set with him! It’s been a great experience” said Shritima Chauhan, one of the winning co-stars.

 

 

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