How can a brand build awareness in India without relying on conventional advertising?
Create content people actively want to watch, place it where the target audience already spends time, and make the brand useful inside the story. For Indeed, Paul Writer combined entertainment, job-search education and strategic platform placement in a five-episode scripted series on Disney+ Hotstar.
The campaign made Indeed's product benefits part of the content experience rather than treating the brand as a conventional interruption.
Indeed wanted more than visibility
Indeed was looking to expand aggressively in the Indian job market. Paul Writer was engaged to enhance brand presence, increase the user base and elevate user engagement and value.
The strategic challenge: How do you make a recruitment brand entertaining and useful enough to earn attention from India's young technology workforce?
What made the campaign different?
Own a clear role in the job journey
Indeed was positioned as a preferred destination for IT talent and jobs, an expert in resumes and job search, and a comprehensive source of IT opportunities and skills.
Turn product education into entertainment
Instead of a conventional ad, the campaign used a scripted five-minute sketch series: INDEED – THE INTERVIEW.
Put the brand inside the narrative
Candidates faced deliberately mismatched interviewers while an expert character provided practical advice on resumes and interviews, naturally connecting the story to Indeed's value proposition.
Use the platform as part of the media plan
The sketches ran on Disney+ Hotstar as mini-ads, push notifications and in-app content, supported by Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn promotion.
From campaign idea to multi-channel content engine
Five original episodes
Each episode featured a new candidate and a comic interview scenario designed around common hiring myths and tropes.
Useful product moments
The sketches highlighted Indeed's resume tools, job-search filters, company reviews and job alerts.
Influencer amplification
Campaign influencers supported the content through social promotion, generating 2K+ total engagement from 10+ posts.
Platform amplification
Disney+ Hotstar's owned channels and promotional inventory extended the campaign beyond the episodes themselves.
Who was the campaign designed to reach?
The primary audience was 20–35-year-old technology workers in India, spanning IT/ITES and technology roles, from new job seekers through professionals with several years of experience.
The desired action was simple: get relevant candidates to use Indeed and upload their resumes.
What did the digital campaign achieve?
The five-episode content campaign generated more than 6 million total content views.
70% : 30%
SVOD versus AVOD contribution to watch time.
30M reach · 50M impressions
Large-scale exposure through on-app promotion.
70M reach
Push notifications extended the campaign's distribution footprint.
10+ influencer posts · 2K+ engagement
Influencer and social promotion added another layer of reach.
What is the bigger marketing lesson?
- Entertainment can carry education. Useful product information does not have to feel like product advertising.
- Start with the audience problem. Resume building, interviews and finding the right job gave the campaign a natural human tension.
- Make the brand's expertise visible. Indeed's value was demonstrated through the story rather than simply claimed.
- Design distribution with the idea. The campaign was built for a platform, then amplified through owned, paid and social touchpoints.
- Measure the whole journey. Views and reach matter, but so do recall, brand association, purchase intent and message association.
Digital marketing and brand campaigns in India
How can a brand increase its presence in India?
A strong approach combines clear positioning, audience-specific content, relevant distribution partnerships and consistent measurement. Entertainment-led content can be effective when the brand has useful expertise to share.
What does a digital marketing agency do for a brand campaign?
A strategic digital marketing partner can help define the audience and proposition, develop the campaign concept, create content, coordinate distribution and partnerships, manage amplification and evaluate results.
How do you make branded content engaging?
Start with a genuine audience tension or problem, then build an entertaining or useful story around it. The brand should contribute expertise or value naturally rather than interrupting the experience.
How can brands use content marketing to build awareness?
Content marketing can build awareness by giving audiences something useful, interesting or entertaining enough to consume and share. Strong campaigns connect that content directly to a distinctive brand proposition.
Can entertainment-led campaigns work for recruitment and HR brands?
Yes. Recruitment brands have naturally human topics—jobs, interviews, resumes, workplace culture and career decisions—that can translate into useful and entertaining content.
