Sunstone's Content Day: An Exchange of Rich Ideas with Top 20 Media Houses

"Content isn't the king, it's the kingdom" - Lee Odden

We've all spent our time in lockdown binge-watching our favourite series and exploring new content. Let's all just admit that the habit hasn't worn out yet and we're not even guilty ;)

Keeping that in mind, Sunstone's leadership & marketing teams came together for you on the 18th of November along with media teams of MX Player, MTV, Voot, TOI, Jagran, Culture Machine and many more. The aim was to discuss experiential content ideas that leave an impression in the hearts of the community. This event was led by India’s top creative agency, Madison India.

“We had a great experience interacting with the Sunstone team on Content Day. It was a pleasure to see how the entire team was present and gave each participating team equal attention to understand the ideas that were shared. A big thanks to Alekhya and Malvika for their time and feedback on the ideas! This helped us structure the ideas in a way that would best deliver the campaign thought to the larger team as well. We hope to get the opportunity to work with the team in the near future!” - Aparna Tandon, VP, Madison Anugrah

With this, Sunstone embarks on a new business growth journey where the community & students will be the centre of every creative idea, content, strategy & product, reaching masses with hero campaigns.

“To embark on the new journey of brand integration with masses, it’s crucial that we create content that our consumers will love & relate to. We aim to entertain & address the daily lives of our community by creating an IP that reflects them & their aspirations. Everything that we will create, curate & share will be driven by our vision of “Is it right for the students?”, added Alekhya Chakrabarty, Head of Marketing, Sunstone With an aim as clear as this, Content Day acted as a catalyst to ignite the bright minds at work. And what better way to build something new than having a war of words, but not literally ;)

What was Witnessed

A plethora of top production houses (MX Player, Voot, Zee5, MTV, Culture Machine, Youtube & more) and advertising agencies (TOI, Mirchi, Madison Anugrah, Aaj Tak, Jagran, & more) convened with Sunstone. Their ideas were youth-centric and relatable to scale our journey even further.

The OTT ideas that were presented brought along a fresh- perspective from the student's point of view and gave a peek into their life at a deeper level. It consisted of both fiction and non-fiction storylines that covered the representation of Sunstone in the best ways to impact our target audience.

The BTL/Campus activation pitches introduced the team to a variety of innovative marketing strategies that promised to help Sunstone reach every corner & nook of the country with our value proposition, i.e. #EducationThatWorks. The amalgamation of academics and holistic activities blended very well with the vision of Sunstone

The Next Step

The next step is as exciting as it gets! The feedback received from attendees will be counted towards making the final decision on the choice of media agency & the IP.

The content IP will primarily drive the community engagement with a web series- that will be binge-worthy with quality content. Along with that, plenty of BTL activities like talent hunt, Leaders hunt etc coming up for Sunstone's students where they can showcase their hidden talents, and earn rewards. These activities are an opportunity for the students to transform themselves into the best version of themselves, also while giving them a chance to get placed with top employers in the country as a gratification to all these events.

Speaking of Sunstones' Content Day event, Co-founder & CEO, Ashish Munjal said, “Business growth will be crucial in the next phase which means creating a marketing campaign that leaves a heartwarming impression on all our stakeholders. We are also integrating our existing offerings with the latest tech innovations. We are super excited for this content marketing campaign to connect with our audience at an emotional level and educate them about our value propositions.”

The Takeaways

While the presenters put forward their pitches, the team actively brainstormed with the agencies. The active participation and constant feedback after each pitch allowed them to comprehend and get down to essentials like what could be added to the idea or what makes the idea good enough for a potential collaboration. How engaging is the content? How relatable is it for the students? were some of the questions that were taken into account by the content team to ensure that the ideas aligned with the vision of Sunstone.

These parameters helped us and the agencies to recognize the kind of audience that we aim for which is very crucial, after all like the saying goes, "You can't feed salad to a lion".

Moving Forward...

The content day indeed gave the Sunstone team food for thought, a mix of ideas to build upon. It made them foresee the kind of voyage Sunstone will now be embarking upon and to say that we're elated would be an understatement.

Bringing on board any of these eminent production houses and agencies puts Sunstone in line with its vision which is to give students an #EducationThatWorks and more importantly to create an abode that nurtures their dreams.

Sunstone is not a part of the story, it is the story. And this is just the beginning!