How OPPO India is pushing the boundaries of mobile photography

In conversation with Adgully, Sushant Vashistha, Head of Digital Marketing, OPPO India, provides valuable insights into the motivation behind launching the ‘imagineIF’ initiative in India. Inspired by the country’s growing enthusiasm for smartphone photography, OPPO introduced the initiative to celebrate the creativity and artistic skills of mobile photographers. Vashistha highlights that India has become a key player in the mobile photography scene, with more people gaining access to high-quality smartphone cameras. The imagineIF initiative received an overwhelming response, with over 34,000 submissions, showcasing the need for a platform where aspiring photographers can showcase their talent.

Vashistha also speaks about the strategic collaboration with visionary filmmaker SS Rajamouli, who serves as the ambassador for the imagineIF India Photography Awards 2024. By leveraging social media, particularly Instagram, OPPO successfully drove awareness and engagement for the initiative. The marketing strategy included content featuring SS Rajamouli and other jury members, partnerships with top photography communities, and innovative storytelling to inspire participation. With over 545 million views and a reach of 238 million people, the initiative’s success reflects OPPO’s commitment to fostering a vibrant community of mobile photographers in India.

What motivated OPPO to launch the imagineIF initiative in India?

As the only smartphone brand at Paris Photo 2023, OPPO showcased outstanding images from renowned photographers and winning entries from the 2023 OPPO imagineIF Photography Awards.

With this global success, OPPO has launched the imagineIF initiative in India, inspired by the country’s growing love for smartphone photography. With more people getting access to smartphones with high-quality cameras, India has become a key player in the mobile photography scene.

The imagineIF initiative is designed to spark a passion for mobile photography, celebrating the creativity and artistic skills of mobile photographers. The initiative received an incredible response in India, with over 34,000 submissions, showing just how much, it resonates with the Indian photography community, and the need for a platform for the aspiring photographers to showcase their talent.

We have already shortlisted the top 50 photographers. They will now shoot exclusively with our flagship OPPO Find X7 Ultra device, experiencing the world’s first Quad Main Camera. We are excited to see the next set of photos and the creativity they will showcase. The top six winners will be announced on July 25, 2024 and will get a chance to visit the Paris Photo 2024.

What was the strategy behind collaborating with SS Rajamouli for the imagineIF initiative?

It is an honour for us to have the visionary filmmaker, SS Rajamouli, as the ambassador for our imagineIF India Photography Awards 2024. His body work is the perfect example of the kind of magic that could be created when creativity meets technology. And that’s also the idea behind imagineIF. With his creative vision and OPPO’s prowess in imaging technologies, we are pushing the boundaries of mobile photography.

Could you provide some insights on how OPPO has leveraged social media for the imagineIF initiative?

Social media was the key platform for OPPO India to drive awareness and engagement for imagineIF India. We devised a content-led marketing strategy because the challenge was to make photography, which is usually considered as a serious topic, into a “cool” topic for the larger audience. Focusing our efforts on Instagram we crafted interesting content pieces featuring our ambassador SS Rajamouli and the Jury members to inspire and aspire the photography enthusiasts to participate. For instance, one of our brand videos featured SS Rajamouli and Raghu Ram. The video had Raghu as the judge of a photography contest, and in true Raghu fashion, he is shown losing his cool over the contestants. Just then, SS Rajamouli enters the scene and advises Raghu to nurture creativity rather than shun it. This was an interesting collaboration through which we promoted imagineIF.

Besides this, we realised that to reach out to the more serious photography enthusiasts, we would need to target the photography communities, where serious and amateur photographers come together to share their work. So, we partnered with some of the top photography communities on Instagram and also photography schools to ensure that our message reaches out the right audience.

So, it was a well-rounded social media strategy that led to the success of the program.

Could you share some key engagement metrics or feedback received from participants so far?

We received over 34,000 entries, with the ‘Portrait’ category emerging as the most popular, capturing 26% of the submissions. ‘Landscape’ followed closely, accounting for 20% of the entries.

For OPPO’s imagineIF amplification, we garnered over 545 million views and reached an audience of 238 million people across our social media platforms. This wide reach was greatly amplified through our collaboration with imagineIF’s brand ambassador, SS Rajamouli, whose influence and creative vision resonated deeply with the audience. Additionally, the involvement of renowned jury members like Arjun Mark, Joseph Radhik, and Arzoo Khurana added substantial credibility and attracted a diverse pool of talented photographers.

What are OPPO’s long-term goals for the imagineIF initiative in India?

Given the tremendous response received during the first round of the imagineIF initiative in India, it is evident that people have enthusiastically embraced this initiative. OPPO India’s long-term goal is to further expand and deepen the impact of imagineIF across India. Building on the momentum of the initial success, we aim to continue fostering a vibrant community of mobile photographers and enthusiasts by developing the imagineIF program further.

Could you share a prominent example of a successful marketing campaign by OPPO India and the kind of engagement it garnered?

OPPO India has launched several successful marketing campaigns, showcasing its skill in leveraging cultural insights, social trends and innovative storytelling to engage audiences. One of our recent campaigns is the #DareToFlaunt initiative featuring actor Shraddha Kapoor and cricketer Shreyas Iyer. This campaign introduced the OPPO F27 Pro+ 5G as a durable, damage-proof smartphone, aligning with the adventurous spirit of Gen-Z. Through daring challenges like dunking the phone in a swimming pool and running it over with a car, OPPO India showcased the phone’s durability in real-world scenarios. This campaign effectively highlighted key product features while encouraging users to confidently flaunt their phones, resonating strongly with its target demographic and reinforcing brand credibility.