Leading creative agencies and Facebook India join hands to boost short-form video

To redefine short-form mobile video creativity in the country, Facebook India has partnered with leaders from the advertising industry - Wunderman Thompson, Ogilvy, Leo Burnett, McCann and Mullen Lintas - to transform storytelling for mobile advertising.

 

With this initiative, prominent creative leaders of the country have come together to transform and pivot the creative industry to embrace creativity for mobile.

 

The social media giant has also launched an initiative where creative minds (agencies and individuals) are invited to send their ideas (scripts) that highlight short-form creativity. The top 20 ideas will be produced by Facebook and showcased in prestigious events like the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity in 2020.

 

The initiative sees the participation of Sukesh Nayak, CCO, West, at Ogilvy India, Senthil Kumar, CCO Wunderman Thompson India, Rajdeepak Das, CCO-South Asia and MD-India, Leo Burnett, Garima Khandelwal, CCO, Mullen Lintas, and Ashish Chakravarty, executive director and head of creative at McCann Worldgroup (India). These key partners will spearhead change at their agencies, and eventually for the industry.

 

In partnership with Facebook, they will support skilling of their teams, helping them understand and think mobile-first and execute short-form videos more seamlessly. Thumbstoppers will also see experts from Facebook visiting top agency offices in the country to empower them with the required skills and education to create effective short-form video campaigns for their clients. These stories are intended to showcase how mobile videos offer a diverse canvas by being distinct to other mediums - the importance of grabbing attention in the first few seconds, viewed on vertical often with sound-off, and a delight with sound-on. 

 

Sandeep Bhushan, director and head of global marketing solutions (GMS), at Facebook India, said, “Advertising on Facebook has driven significant business results for all our advertisers - large and small. The opportunity now is to drive the impact even harder with storytelling built for mobile. Thumbstoppers is our partnership with the creative agencies to inspire and showcase short stories that evoke emotions in under ten seconds."

 

Facebook is also throwing open a 'Thumbstopper Challenge' - an invitation to all creative minds to submit their short stories on the brief of driving behaviour change in less than ten seconds by July 12. The winners of the Thumbstopper Challenge will be announced in August, and the top winners will get to travel to Cannes Lions in 2020.

 

The key partners on this initiative will serve on the eminent jury for the challenge along with Gaurav Jeet Singh, General Manager, Media, South Asia at Unilever India, and Rashi Goel, VP Consumer Communications, Media, and CRM at Nestle.

 

Senthil Kumar, CCO, Wunderman Thompson, said, “Short Stories Move Hearts - It takes only a few seconds to show support, break down barriers, display kindness, start a movement or express that love has no boundaries. Our campaign created to launch Facebook Thumbstoppers is a mobile kick-starter of sorts. The idea is to demonstrate that storytelling can happen in a short and sweet span of 10 seconds. Exploring this telegraphic short format in the mobile medium is important because of decreasing attention spans and growing impatience. Each of these films tells a story that has some underlying purpose or human truth in it. Much like advertising for brands, these films also use drama, emotion, suspense and humor to tug at your heart strings.”

 

Thumbstoppers is the first initiative to be rolled-out as part of Facebook Creative Playground, an industry-wide capability-enhancing program led by Facebook that is geared towards building the advertising ecosystem in India in partnership with leading creative agencies. Facebook will work closely with these partners to collaborate on a range of initiatives and skilling programs that will enable the agencies to explore a wide range of cutting-edge digital brand solutions. 

 

Last date of Thumbstopper Challenge submission: 12th July, 2019

Contest details and submission link: https://fb.me/fbthumbstoppers