Sunrise Spices: Kristir Milan Setu Influencer Campaign Case Study

Sunrise Spices wanted to build a bridge between the many communities of Assam. The idea was Kristir Milan Setu, which loosely means "a bridge of cultural union".

During Rongali Bihu, dance groups from communities across the state would gather for four days and compete, each performing its own traditional dance. Sunrise wanted the event to celebrate Assam's diversity on a single stage.

The challenge had two parts:

• Awareness at scale: people across Assam and the wider Northeast had to know about the event and feel part of it before it began.
• Footfall: that awareness had to turn into a real crowd at the venue, on a limited budget.

At the heart of the campaign was an AI chatbot. Anyone could chat with it, upload a photo and get a personalised avatar of themselves dressed in the traditional attire of their community.

The insight was simple. In a fast-modernising world, many young people in the Northeast feel distant from their cultural roots. Seeing themselves in a mekhela chador, a dokhona or their own community's dress made that heritage personal again, and very shareable.

The mechanic was built to spread:

1. A user creates their cultural avatar through the chatbot.
2. They post it on Instagram and tag Sunrise Northeast.
3. Their followers see it, try the chatbot themselves and learn about Kristir Milan Setu.

Every avatar shared became a small invitation to the event.

A great idea only works if the right people see it. Our job was to get the chatbot in front of every community the event wanted to bring together, without overspending.

Choosing influencers by community reach, not follower count. We shortlisted creators with strong engagement in different communities of the Northeast. A creator loved by one community's audience could speak to that community in a way no ad could.

Content that showed, not told. Influencers created their own avatars, shared them, and invited followers to try the chatbot, tag Sunrise Northeast and come to the event at Rongali Bihu.

Paid partnerships were labelled as advertisements, as the ASCI guidelines for influencer advertising require.

• About 40,000 people used the chatbot and created their own AI avatar in traditional attire.
• A wave of user-generated content on Instagram, with people tagging Sunrise Northeast as they shared their avatars.
• A packed event. The online buzz turned into real footfall across all four days of Kristir Milan Setu.

Most importantly, thousands of young people spent a moment reconnecting with their roots, and connected that feeling with Sunrise.