VerSe Innovation launched Josh -a made-in-India, a short-video app in August 2020. Josh, within a short period, garnered enormous growth with the app being consistently rated as the leading Indian short-video app in India on the Play store with 100million+ downloads. Josh is currently the fastest growing and most engaged short-video app in India with 124 million MAUs (Monthly Active Users) and 60 million DAUs (Daily Active Users). It represents a confluence of India’s 1000+ best creators, 20000 strong managed community of creators, the 10 biggest music labels, 15+ million UGC creators, best in class content creation tools, the hottest entertainment formats, and formidable user demographics.
Recently, Josh partnered with Flipkart for the #bigbilliondhamaal campaign which had an objective to promote Flipkart’s Big Billion Days sale. As part of the campaign, Josh created a Hashtag Challenge amplifying the exciting offers in Flipkart’s Big Billion Day Sale combined with a contest offering the users an exciting chance to win smartphones. The campaigns received stupendous results with 11,000+ videos created with 327.4Mn+ views.
In conversation with Medianews4u, Sunil Kumar Mohapatra, Chief Revenue Officer, VerSe Innovation spoke about the objectives of the campaign, the role of influencer marketing, strategies followed by Josh to amplify the campaign reach, and more.
Excerpts:
Can you elaborate on the objectives of the #bigbilliondhamaal campaign and the strategies you have followed for the campaign?
Flipkart’s #bigbilliondhamaal is an annual festival for the users to avail best offers on their platform across India including tier 2 and 3 cities. Josh partnered with Flipkart to amplify the excitement around the event. We leveraged our set of Josh Stars and over 100 creators in 7 days to launch the BBD soundtrack and showcase products from across categories – electronics to fashion to home. The exciting piece was the contest that Josh launched on the platform with the winners getting prizes from the Flipkart Big Billion Day sale
Can you talk in detail about the outcome of the campaign?
With over 100 creators, Flipkart’s BigBillionDay came alive on the platform with each creator using their unique way of storytelling while incorporating the brand USP, the hashtag #flipit to showcase the great deals during the Big Billion Day sale. The campaign saw over 330 mn video views with over 11,000 users on Josh who used the hashtag #flipit and used the unique soundtrack
Role of influencer marketing and the ways in which Josh has amplified the campaign reach?
At the heart of content are influencers who can tell stories about their lives, their points of view in a way that is both engaging and meaningful. Josh is a platform where content creators and influencers are telling their stories in a snappy, snackable way in 12 languages across the length and breadth of India. Brands are recognizing the power of this form of storytelling, the weight, a key opinion leader who can engage their fans and followers and influence their decision-making in a far more organic manner than regular marketing. Josh has 124 mn monthly active users and close to 50% of these users come back to the platform daily. This campaign generated over 330 million views in just a span of 7 days which is an outcome of the stickiness of the users on the platform. In addition to the creators, Josh amplified the challenge through branded notifications in multiple languages, premium visibility of the challenge on the platform – Discovery Banner Carousel, Branded hashtag Page, etc.
Any other case studies or campaigns you can recall?
Brands across categories are partnering with Josh to amplify their brand message, to create excitement and influence their TG leveraging our strong content creator ecosystem, technology features like filters/effects and stickiness of our users who spend close to 30 minutes a day to consume, to create and amplify the brand USP across the platform. Some of the most active partnerships are with E-commerce, OTT, BFSI, Consumer Durables, and Technology verticals on the platform network.
Within one year of launch, Josh has shot up to become one of the top short video apps in the country. What are the factors you attribute the growth to?
Josh is a ‘Made in India’ short video app for creators of Bharat. The platform allows users to watch the latest videos of their favorite creators, record and upload their own videos, take part in fun challenges, and become a star through its numerous successful IPs.
The strong creator ecosystem, availability in multiple languages, amazing effects, and filters coupled with the partnerships with leading music labels gives the app an appeal to its vast user base. The app sees 124 million MAUs, 60 million DAUs, 20 million UGC content creators, and more than 2 billion video plays per day.
It’s these factors that have led Josh, which launched a year ago, to be the only Indian app to feature in the Top 10 of App Store and Play Store downloads in May 2021. It was the world’s 10th most downloaded app overall, and eighth most downloaded on Play Store, according to data from Sensor Tower.
What are the advertising options Josh is offering for the clientele?
Content marketing is truly coming alive in India and specifically on the short-form video space. Josh is the go-to platform with Josh Studios for creative storytelling, deep creator ecosystem and world-class AI/ML which serves content to 124 mn monthly users across 12 languages. This is available to our partners across industries who’re leveraging our strengths to reach out to their audiences creatively.
