India’s 75th Republic Day celebrations looked a little different this time on the app, thanks to the Design Solutions (DeSo) team.
The country is caught in a festive frenzy from December to January. The celebrations start during Christmas and end with Republic Day. When one thinks of Republic Day, the first thing that comes to mind is the iconic parade in New Delhi. While the armed forces weave magic in the capital, DeSo team was tasked with creating a similar feel on the Swiggy app, with a twist.
Here’s what they have to say about how they ideated and championed India’s food diversity to crack a simple brief – make a “viral” campaign.
The Ask:
To come up with something that is different and viral-worthy! (We were bang on.)
But wait, isn’t that the ask for every campaign? So, how exactly was this different?
But first, the campaign objectives
- Target audience: Repeat users.
- Objective: Enhancing users engagement on the app.
- User delights: Shareability, no monetary gratification.
DeSo Magic: Real to reel, err virtual parade!
See, dropping the word ‘ideation’ to Team DeSo can be dangerous sometimes, especially when it comes to showcasing India’s cultural diversity through a campaign (Team DeSo is mini India!). Pretty soon we found ourselves fighting with a couple of wonderful ideas. The winner was the food parade, a replica of the Republic Day parade.
The components: Getting ready for the parade
The game was simple: Upon clicking the ‘Play’ button, users will be able to pick and vote for their favourite food tableau and share it with their friends. By now we all know anything ‘simple’ requires a huge effort which makes the process a little ‘complex’.
We listed down the immediate tools we needed to put things in place:
An infinity scroll: Our web-dev team is always ready to tango (because we only have TWO of them!)
The infinity scroll was not part of the standard design and interaction. And then there was social proofing to be made: A live counter to showcase how many people have attended/viewed the parade. Cool, isn’t it?
Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words – Mark Twain
While our web-dev team started working on the infinity scroll, our copy team was busy researching. The brief was not to add any food angle on the shareable pop-up cards. However, we had a different plan: Will we get a better opportunity to inform the country about their own unique food facts than just a food parade? NO!
So, we deep dived, researched, researched, and zeroed in on 28 plus 8 unique food facts for each state and union territory. Then it was time to craft the communication and editing copy. But you know what? We. Loved. It!
The AI Carts:
While that was going on, our imagery team was making the carts… with AI. And for those who think AI does the ‘thinking’, let us remind you – AI still needs humans to think for it. That’s where our visual designing team came into picture.
Challenges:
- 36 unique food tableaus containing four to five cuisines along with elements representing cultural diversity of each state of India with meticulous attention and detail.
- Maintaining consistency in design and perspective to create a cohesive visual narrative
How we overcame them:
- Research, research, research.
- Meticulous attention to detail.
- Perfecting prompts for AI.
Fast forward to 26th January: The parade went live
Finally, the last hurdle was a shocker, code freeze and some other technical stuff, but why relive those panic-stricken moments?
For a one-day event, the Food Parade got 83% of impressions which was pretty good engagement but not great.
Which state won the food parade? *Drumrolls* The winner was Delhi!
We closed the loop on the next day by sending a push notification to all the users who interacted with the campaign.
