How BIC Cello and Kavishala encouraged creative expression through the medium of stationery on Poetry Day

About the campaign 

BIC Cello wanted to encourage creative expression through the tactile medium of stationery to commemorate National Poetry Day. The fundamental motivation behind the campaign was – a pen in hand when put to paper facilitates a free flow of thoughts unmatched by digital mediums. The dominance of the digital age has made it difficult for people to express emotions and feelings through written words, even though the writing is one of the most beautiful ways to discover one’s innermost self. The idea to co-opt poetry day emerged from the thought that Poetry reading and writing both engage our senses as well as our emotions, making the art form experiential and hugely effective in connecting with our minds and hearts. In the age of the keyboard and mouse, a pen has the power to become our closest ally.

On 21st March 2022 (Poetry Day) BIC Cello partnered with Kavishala, a leading community that encourages poetic expression in English and Hindi from across the country, for the second time. Kavishala provides a platform for new and young poets to share, recite and discuss their poetry with a peer group of similar interests both online and offline. Their unique proposition and consistent engagement made them the preferred partners for the campaign and for the objective set out by the brand. 

The second edition of the #PoetryOnPaper initiative led by the brand was executed in a month-long campaign format aimed at giving participants a chance to showcase their creativity on chosen themes and stand a chance to get recognized nationally. This year, the campaign was based on 4 themes; peace, motivation, imagination, and hope which were given to participants week on week.

Problem Statement/Objective 

The pandemic ushered in a digital-first approach to life at an accelerated pace. BIC Cello wanted to shine the spotlight on the humble writing instrument – the pen as a superior tool for creative expression over the digital medium. The brand focuses on creating communication campaigns for niche consumer sets to speak to a large variety of audiences on themes that matter to them the most. For National Poetry Day, the brand focused solely on verse-makers, old and new. 

Digitalization, according to the brand, has its drawbacks. We see a world that is filtered and appears to be ideal. We also live in a world that associates asking for help with weakness and vulnerability with vulnerability. For a long time, this mindset has made people afraid to speak openly about their own experiences. People are cautious to express their emotions because of societal stereotypes, fearing that others would not accept them. Poetry could be a good outlet for those feelings. Poets are increasingly speaking out on societal issues, human topics, and lifestyle and relationship reflections, among other things, in their writing.

BIC Cello wanted to celebrate this candor and encourage others to safely express topics they want to talk about, feelings otherwise hard to share. Kavishala and BIC Cello co-created the platform where people could come together through shared emotions and experiences with the use of a simple pen. The campaign also reminded people how good it feels to express themselves and create awareness of the role that putting pen to paper plays in relieving mental stress.

Brief

The goal was to encourage individual experiences and help to open up the discussion of poetic expressions to a wider audience. The accessibility of poetry allows us to better address stereotypes and the dangers of putting one’s feelings in a closed box. The simple brief was, to channel your emotions and feelings, use a pen to create a character, a name, a face, and a story, and bring your feelings to life. 

Creative Idea 

Reading and composing poetry engages both our senses and our emotions, making the art form experiential and powerful in connecting with our minds and hearts. Creating a crisp and exact depiction of one’s feelings is the goal of poetry. “Writing longhand is an absolutely personal endeavor where the outer world is cut off, only my thoughts and the movement of my hand across the paper to keep me company, “wrote writer Lee Rourke in an article for The Guardian. The entire procedure keeps me in touch with my writing craft. It’s a deep, unbroken link between mind and language that technology appears to the short circuit once I start using it. Following this idea, we decided to combine pen and paper with digital media. The collaboration with Kavishala to conduct the #PoetryOnPaper Twitter contest brought the concept to life. This year’s campaign revolved around four themes: peace, motivation, imagination, and hope, which were presented to participants on a weekly basis. This year’s response has been fantastic, and as the campaign draws to a close, customers are continuing to participate and share their entries.

Challenges

• How to ensure people actually pick up a pen and paper to write?
• Direct product integration was a challenge for the campaign as we were all stationed at home.

Execution 

Social Media: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, any other social media platforms  

The idea was brought to life through a Twitter campaign #PoetryOnPaper by BIC Cello Signature Pens. The campaign challenged people to write poetry on paper and challenge 3 Friends for the same. The poem was supposed to have a minimum of four lines and the picture of the handwritten poem had to be uploaded on Twitter using the hashtag #PoetryOnPaper. The campaign started on the 21st of March and concluded on 23rd April, 2021, and received high participation.

Essentially a Twitter campaign, it was further amplified on Facebook and Instagram as well.

Kavishala social following:

• Twitter: 203K+
• Instagram: 63K+
• Facebook: 18K+

The activities undertaken during the period of collaboration were:

• #PoetryOnPaper Campaign on Twitter
• Promotion of #PoetryOnPaper Campaign on Twitter
• Top post promotions using Cello Banner
• Instagram engagement
• Facebook engagement
• Email campaign ‘Poetry on Paper – Supported by BIC Cello’
• Homepage banner – BIC Cello
• Mobile push
• Desktop push
• Cover Banners of Campaigns for a month

-Digital – SEO, ad words, ad placements, etc 

• Email campaign ‘Poetry on Paper – Supported by BIC Cello’
• Homepage banner – BIC Cello
• Mobile
• Desktop
• Cover Banners of Campaigns for a month
• Social Media Promotion on Instagram and FB

Results 

Quantitative

• Impressions Total: 10,330,000
• Engagements: 120,566
• Users – 30+ Celebrities (Average Following of all users ~6 Lakhs)
• Total Tweets on #PoetryOnPaper: 1,904 [Around 20 Million Impressions]
• Website Banners:
  • Total Impressions: 92,958
  • Unique Impressions: 62,298
• Instagram:
  • Total impressions: 100K+
• Facebook
  • Total impressions: 50K+
• 2 Emails to Kavishala Writers – Campaign ‘Participation for #PoetryOnPaper’ with branding –
  • UserBase: 150K+
  • Open Rate: 23%
  • Click Rate: 17% (Links – #PoetryOnPaper, http://kavishala.in/poetryonpaper)

Manos Nikolakis, General Manager, BIC Cello India shared his thoughts on the campaign, “As the leaders in manufacturing and distribution of stationery, the brand is deeply rooted in the core philosophy of enabling creative expressions and bringing joy to everyday lives. We felt the need of reinvigorating the importance of ‘Poetry Day’ to motivate and encourage individuals to express in the form of poetry by putting pen to paper. Kavishala perfectly grasped our brief and provided the ideal platform for amplifying the messaging of the campaign. They brought the idea to life and helped turn it into a successful campaign thanks to their well-established reach and interaction with the relevant target.”