The ABP group is one of the largest media publishing groups in India and a quintessentially Bengali institution. The Anandabazar Patrika Puja website was launched in 2003 to cover the festive fervor in Bengal during Durga Puja.

Objective
Visit Bengal during the 10-day Puja period and the sheer vibrancy, fervour and joie de vivre in the environment will stun you. And such an experience begs to be broadcast to a larger number of people who can enjoy it from their armchairs. The motive behind launching such a website was to portray online the daily rituals, color, excitement and vibrancy of the Durga Puja festival; to provide a platform which would enable visitors from all around the world to relate to the events happening somewhere in West Bengal; and to allow for contributions from and interactions between visitors worldwide. ABP also wanted to keep the site ‘alive’ and updated on a minute-by-minute basis. It sought to eventually convert a time-bound micro-site into a revenue generator.

Solution
Extensive use of Flash allowed iridium Interactive (ii) to generate clips of actual activities and daily rituals during the Puja period. Visitors from anywhere in the world could post pictures of Puja pandals on the site. Various images of the rituals were updated on a daily basis for the entire period of the puja.
The site did not stop at just visuals. In a bid to be interactive and creative, it also innovatively incorporated Puja-inspired games, greeting cards, Puja songs, and recipes by the chefs of some of Kolkata’s famous hotels and restaurants. To reinforce the Bengali feel and aura, even the screen savers and wallpapers have been designed and created by Bengal’s finest artists, all downloadable onto a mobile phone.
A complete section has been devoted to the legend of Durga. It talks about the Goddess’s triumph in a unique and non-conventional way that would appeal to the young.

Results
iridium has created a forceful platform for the worldwide online broadcast of the Durga Puja celebrations. The site initially started out as a short-term one that would run for 3 months. However, because of strong demand and interest in the site, it is now live around the year. The sheer liveliness, color and up-to-date persona of the site attracted over 10 million hits in a 15-day period! These high volumes have transformed the site into a value-added and cost-effective advertising channel. Consequently, there is now a high demand and competition for advertising space and marketing messages on the site.
ii designed and created this site that transcends geographical boundaries, to bring the cultural phenomenon of Kolkata to the world, and to unite the worldwide Bengali Diaspora. Ananda Utsav is now a global brand allowing ABP to reach a wider audience.
“Perhaps anandautsav.com helped the global Bengali community to get the truest feel of the Pujas. The fact that this true-blue essence of the Puja could be accessible from the comfort of their homes must have added to the site’s popularity,” an ABP source remarked.

About ii
iridium Interactive Limited (ii) specializes in providing online business solutions. With a presence across three continents, it has been at the forefront in integrating strategy, design and technology to build unique and robust user-centric e-business solutions. At ii, a holistic approach is adopted towards complex business problems to arrive at a complete solution. ii’s talented team has worked on a variety of disciplines for a multitude of clients drawn from various industries, and has a number of award-winning works to its credit. ii offers it services in the areas of interactive marketing, web marketing, e-learning, enterprise consulting and web accessibility initiatives.

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