The Day Kumbhkaran Joined LinkedIn

At Wakefit, my brand head walked into a meeting and said, "Let's put Kumbhkaran on LinkedIn."

Most ideas sound sensible before they become campaigns. This one sounded ridiculous from the start, which is probably why it was a massive hit.

As Content Lead, I was tasked with bringing India's most famous sleeper to life as Wakefit's Chief Sleep Officer. The challenge wasn't creating content; it was creating a person. I had to think beyond the campaign and imagine what Kumbhkaran would be like if he suddenly found himself navigating the modern professional world.

How would he describe his previous work experience? What would he list under educational qualifications? Would he write thought-leadership articles? What would he think of hustle culture? And perhaps most importantly, could someone who spends six months asleep still maintain a stronger online presence than most professionals?

As it turned out, he could.

With every post, comment and interaction, Kumbhkaran became a little more real. He stopped feeling like a campaign character and started feeling like that oddly charming colleague everyone knows. Witty, punny to a fault, perpetually unavailable, and yet strangely well-liked.

People followed him. Brands interacted with him. The internet played along. Even LinkedIn tolerated him for a while.

Then the profile was banned.

What could have been the end of the campaign became one of its most memorable moments. The ban became part of the story, the story spread across channels, and the campaign went on to win awards, generate millions of impressions, and contribute to a 64% increase in revenue during the awareness period.

Looking back, the experience reinforced something I still believe. People rarely engage with campaigns; they engage with characters. And the most powerful characters are the ones everyone thinks they already know until you put them somewhere absurd, in this case LinkedIn.