Case Study — The Diwali Story
Sometimes I wish all design projects could be like this. Illustration is often neglected in mobile apps and people go crazy making case for functionality. This was PepperTap’s attempt at breaking the stereotypes and creating engagement around Diwali.
“Diwali on a grocery app?” Yes, you got that right!
The idea behind doing this was to connect with the users. At the time we ran this campaign, we were already throwing a lot of discounts on our customers’ way, but we wanted to take a step further. The first few ways that we thought included the use of the usual display of coupons, but that wasn’t what we wanted. We had to reach out to users in a way that said something about Diwali and played with the nostalgia around it. So we went with re-enacting the Ramayana, just like the Ramleela, but in illustrations. This was our eureka moment!
Everyday, one illustration from a Ramayana chapter would go live on the app and social media, with a short story. Based on the story, customers had to guess coupon code for the day. If you guessed it right and entered it during checkout, you’d be eligible to get discounts on your order.
The visuals
The brief for this project was pretty straight-forward. We were assuming that Ramayana was known to everyone, so we did not have the complexity of trying to get them to understand the story. We made a storyboard and figured out the chapters we wanted to show. The good thing was each chapter revolved around one theme and it was possible to show everything from that chapter in one visual.
The only thing left to do was find out the right style. The idea came to us pretty late and we only had a week to finish the project. If I took longer, I would not be able to finish it in time and Diwali would be gone. I tried different style of illustration to see which one would be fastest to do and have smallest file size and yet look good. Eventually I decided to go with a minimal style, with just enough detail to tell the story when coupled with the text.
The Story
Diwakar was responsible for writing the short story to go with the visual. His initial approach was to add details that not many people know about Ramayana. In my view it was a good attempt at educating users, but since these details could end up being controversial, he omitted the lesser known things and stayed put with just the story.
“During a Royal Swaymvar, he broke Shiva’s bow —
In front of mighty warriors, they got into the vow”
Each story was haiku-like with just sufficient details and I think he did a fantastic job at summarizing a whole chapter in just a few words.
The End Result
The campaign ran between Dussehra and Diwali 2015. I had real fun working on this story. We hoped to do well with this and the number said that we definitely did better than we expected. This proved that illustration when done the right way, isn’t just pretty — it adds value to your product in a way that no text ever can. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words!
Credits
Concept: Diwakar Kaushik, Vishu Singh, Kanav Abrol, Priyanka Sharma. Illustrations: Priyanka Sharma. Copy: Diwakar Kaushik
