Today, the OTT sector is one of the most advanced and looked up to in the country, especially since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. With over 350 million users and over 96 million active paid subscribers, this medium of entertainment is likely to see exponential growth in the future too. Businesses are trying to explore new mediums to reach their target audience and audiences are already awaiting new innovations in content.
The Movie & Its Marketing
The movie Rashmi Rocket, one of the freshest content from ZEE5, brings forth the story of a small-town girl who faces many obstacles on her way to becoming a national athlete, the most important one being gender testing for female athletes. Tapsee Pannu plays the lead with Supriya Pathak as her mother and Abhishek Banerjee is seen playing the role of her lawyer.
Since the movie revolves around a sensitive and unspoken issue, a social awareness campaign was launched by the name #LetRashmiRun before release, to encourage support against gender testing. A 360-degree approach was adopted with Influencer collaborations, digital media campaigns, social media campaigns, televisions promos, on-ground events, ad-placements and brand associations, that were undertaken to connect with the audiences and engage with them.
Problems and Challenges faced By the Film
The movie was based on a less-discussed subject and hence needed to come across as right, without being offensive or controversial. This movie raises relevant questions around gender testing in sports which is a derogatory practice, but still practiced worldwide. The movie’s aim was to educate and entertain the masses and the aim of marketing the movie was to raise awareness around this practice as well as promote the movie.
The major challenge is presenting the movie was to concentrate on the bigger message that the film wanted to convey. Another challenge was to stand out from the other content as the movie was seeing a Dussehra release.
The Marketing Campaign
Discussions
The first phase of the campaign saw a conversation between Tapsee Pannu and Hima Das discussing the athlete’s routines, training and inspirational journey to becoming The Dhing Express. The chat was aired on news channels and then released on YouTube and social media platforms.
After this on-on-one conversation, a panel discussion was held featuring Dr Sunita Godara, sports psychologist Freya Katre, former football player Jyoti Burnett and Tapsee Pannu, aired on NewsX and then released on YouTube. This was done to raise awareness on the topic of gender testing
Song Releases
As the movie was scheduled to release around Dussehra, a 15-second video featuring Tapsee Pannu performing her hook step from the song “Ghani Cool Chori” was launched on social media. Along with her, many other influencers like Sonal Devraj, Jigar Thakkar and Adnaan Shaikh along with the song’s singer Bhumi Trivedi were also seen performing on this song.
This hook step challenge was initiated by Moj and Josh.
Influencer Marketing
To keep the campaign going in full support for the film, the makers roped in 9 female legends, one for each day of Navratri pledging their support to Rashmi Rocket on 15th October, the day of her release. The celebrities were Faye D’Souza, Garima Avtar, RJ Malishka, Sonali Swami, Sania Mirza, Sushant Divgikar, Kritika Khurana, Mandira Bedi And Harmanpreet Kaur, who posted a reel each pledging support to Rashmi in her fight against the practice of gender testing.
Along with them, influencer Ranveer Allahbadia aka beer Biceps was also roped in to capitalise on podcast shows like “The Ranveer Show”, revolving around women empowerment.
On Ground Activation
An on-ground “Run With Rashmi” drive was organized that saw 500= Mumbaikarsrun along a digital version of Tapsee on Carter road in support of the cause #LetRashmiRun.
Are you ready to sprint with Rashmi? Come join us for an interactive event, where you will get a chance to #RunWithRashmi, and a few lucky winners will get an opportunity to attend the #RashmiRocket screening along with the full star cast! pic.twitter.com/NAxpK1hUk7
— ZEE5 (@ZEE5India) October 8, 2021
Educational Posts
To further boost Rashmi Rocket marketing campaign, support campaigns were launched around the central theme of #LetRashmiRun encouraging netizens to voice their support for the cause using hashtags like #LetRashmiRun and #StopGenderTesting.
A few awareness posts were also launched around Rashmi’s journey and her challenges.
#StopGenderTestingPosts
The movie also released #StopGenderTesting posts, according to which users had to click on the heart icon, for a reminder on the launch day while expressing solidarity for the issue of gender testing.
Gender testing discredits years of hard work. Let's show our support to #StopGenderTesting and #LetRashmiRun.#RashmiRocket Premieres 15 Oct on #Zee5 pic.twitter.com/A9Yz3I3Sd7
— taapsee pannu (@taapsee) October 2, 2021
Leveraging Twitter
Under this, a promo tweet was released where the audience could interact with Rashmi Rocket. All they had to do was tweet the post to receive a video from Taapsee that highlighted gender testing in sports.
Tap on the ❤️ or retweet this tweet with #RashmiRocket & be the first to watch Rashmi Rocket on the 15th of October.@taapsee @MrAkvarious @nowitsabhi @priyanshu29 pic.twitter.com/w6NWjMe5ja
— ZEE5 (@ZEE5India) October 10, 2021
The Results
1.#LetRashmiRun campaign garnered 22 million plus views and support in the country. The trailer earned 17 million views and the song Ghani Cool Chori earned 12 million views on YouTube.
2. Heart To Remind Twitter recorded 3.1 million+ impressions for reminding of launch day.
3. Influencer marketing received a thunderous response attracting 8 million views.
4. Zee5 &Rashmi Rocket featured in Twitter Marketing India for category of “Brands Leading The Way” for October 2021.
5. A surge in search of Gender testing in Sports was observed on Google during campaign.
