Topical content may last a day or week, but this video is still circulating on Instagram, just found that it was shared by 186,000 people recently.. (https://www.instagram.com/reel/C9ohYnvvCgW/)
To create timeless content:
1.. Focus on the basics, storytelling above all else, more real it feels the better.
2.. Dive deep into audience research, get to the tiniest micro-moments and pain points. Your products solves for one pain point of the audience, for all other pain points on the orbit.. use your content to solve them, your brand exists to make the lives of the audience better, through your products and content.
3.. Create authentically, no fancy graphics were used in this video.. actual book was printed and a top shot, oh and those are my hands
During the lockdown days, there was a crisis on the streets. While we were tucked away in our homes, a lot of migrant workers were going back to their native places, walking all the way, scrambling for any resources to get home, without food or help.
A friend of mine, Dev Amritesh, CEO of a company which had big industrial kitchens, called me. They had sprung into action. Just like any other company during that time, they were working in crisis mode. They started creating simple meals since all the offices were closed, and these meals were being fed on the ground by local NGO support.
They created a landing page where for ₹30 per meal, anyone could contribute. They would prepare it at no profit and get it delivered on the ground.
He called me to see if I could create a video. Me and my wife made this, and spent ₹350 making it. One of those lockdown moments of just teaming up after washing the dishes and cooking the food to create this video.
This video sent 10,000 people to the landing page (from instagram) with-in days and 1.5 million people were fed. I look back on this with a heavy heart and hope.. something I always remember – the power of content and storytelling to inspire action, which directly helped someone in need.
Aashish what an inspiring story! This is such a powerful reminder of how meaningful impact can come from simple actions, especially in times of crisis. The fact that a ₹350 video could help feed 1.5 million people shows the true power of storytelling and the impact of collaboration. It’s heartwarming to see how creativity and purpose can come together to drive real change. Kudos to you, your wife, Dev, and everyone involved for stepping up when it was most needed. Stories like this restore faith in humanity
Ads focus on the brand, the USP—how cool we are, look at our shiny logo or products. Content that is share-worthy starts from the audience, is made for them, and the brand goes along for the ride when it goes big. The content shouldn’t be about the brand or category but about the people, the audience who would use it.
Not about roller coasters, but about the people who take them.
To get a sense of the place and the rides, I took a cab from Pune all the way to Imagicaa, an incredible theme park near Mumbai. Spent hours going through it all, and then came back, jammed with the team, and settled for a simple one shot taken with a GoPro tied to the roller coaster, compared to fancy drone shots or showcasing how cool the place is.
That simplicity of idea and execution made all the difference. The roller coaster was an amazing metaphor for life. The team worked and deep-dived on the list of pointers many times until the flow seemed natural; then it was ready.
It’s not about how fancy the production is, it’s about storytelling—about how simply we can connect A to B and make it for and about the audience, and that starts by exhaustive deep dive, looking at the audience from multiple vantage points, creating for them :)
Proud of how the team executed, shot, and stitched it together with multiple rounds of reviews.
Now, imagine this format for your brand or your audience, what real life experiences can be metaphors for your audience’s pain points or user journeys.. fill in the blank, and you may have content that is truly for your audience
“What are the pain points, micro-moments, and tiniest of frustrations Indians have with cars?” Identifying the first 10-15 was easy, but it became uphill and against the wind to find deeper truths. It was in the deep dive research and the journey from 15 to 100 micro moments where incredible insights were hidden. That’s what I loved about brainstorming and jam sessions—we weren’t just figuring out ideas; we were getting to the tiny truths. Ideas just happened when there were enough dots to connect.
Had a lot of fun talking about one particular pain point, and when we enjoyed the process, the audience would too. We just needed to keep the authenticity from concept to execution. Everything in this video was non-fiction, driven by a meticulous process. Ideation through the IUCTC framework (Inspirational, Useful, Celebrate their life, Topical, Change the world) made the content relatable and useful for learning pronunciations, and execution was driven by detailed bullet point lists. From selecting the final list of car names to choreographing actions for each name and ensuring the flow of shots kept viewers engaged—every six seconds.
The content the team enjoyed creating the most worked the best since it didn’t feel like work but play. With the incredible skills and talent at Cars24, the team was driven, and everything was executed 100% in-house, even the acting, which was amazing. The results were heartwarming.. over 7000 comments, about the love for cars and one shared pain point :)
Whoa! Even after two years.. this April fools videos is still going big.. 15k reactions within a day.. on LinkedIn videos have a longer shelf life.. when the idea is share-worthy.. Top that with killer in-house execution..
Thanks @pascal_bornet for sharing this, sending you the book, grateful
videos have a longer shelf life.. when the idea is share-worthy.. Top that with killer in-house execution.. 
