Woah! How JBL got 150 college kids to drive 1,000,000+ social media conversations and 20,000 product trials

Ok! Lets go through the numbers. We did this as a team, we are effing proud, and think we might pat ourselves a bit on the back.

150 student influencers | Called them JBL Groove Babas | 1 Million conversations | 20,000 product trials | < $50,000

Communities are insanely powerful, and communities rule the connected world today. GoPro, Apple, Quora, Facebook, Snapchat are build on the backbone of strong communities.

We, a fledgling starting up in India, achieved massive numbers for a global brand leveraging this simple fact. We formed for JBL — the JBL GroveBabas community on campuses across India — a community of music lovers and enthusiasts.

Seeding Community Members

We specifically recruited students who could spark conversation online and offline with their talent. Drawing from our database and various college networks, we attracted over 1500+ applications and over 12,500+ students viewed the opportunity online, we had also stuck on campus posters for this community.

From there, we selected 150 students who were extraordinarily talented as dancers, graffiti artists, DJs, bloggers, musicians, beat-boxers photographers, content writers. Plus they had to have a large following on social media, especially Facebook and Instagram.

Community in Action: GroveBabas with their Grove

JBL GroveBabas created eye-catching content on social media like blogs, vlogs, ads, and tweetathons. They generated over 1 million genuine conversations on social media with over 25,000 creative posts as shown below.

Content created by JBL GroveBabas

On-ground activation was important to showcase the products on college campuses and youth hangouts. The talent of our GroveBabas drew the attention of crowds at various events and allowed us to reach out to more potential consumers.

For example, during one of the events we organized, The Happening in Bangalore, each GroveBaba showcased their talents like beat boxing, street magic and dance. It was a celebration in the middle of Brigade Road and attracted over 1500+ people.

The event even caught the attention of the media.

Another event we attended was the Yurbuds launch event. With the help of various B Boying crews and GroveBabas, we had the attention of over 3000+ people.

We tried out some other activities too, including flash mobs in colleges and hangout spots across 4 cities. Each activity managed to gather a crowd of 200+.

Going for no other brand goes: Inside people houses and parties

With our 150 JBL GrooveBabas, the products could be seen in various colleges, hangout spots, and of course,

Associated with the talented, fun, and popular GroveBabas, JBL products were considered cool and hip.

Our GroveBabas drove over 1 million genuine conversation over social media. Most importantly, they generated over 20,000 product trials in 2 months, leading to high value conversions.


This campaign was delivered by Youth:ink that has been now acquired into Chtrbox.
This article has been adapted from the original article.