Case Study: How ZEE5 created interest around Rashmi Rocket through Gender Testing awareness campaign | #casestudy

With the Rashmi Rocket marketing campaign, ZEE5 tapped on an overarching theme of awareness around Gender Testing in sports, tying it up with the movie’s release. The campaign garnered 22 million+ views.

This case study explores how Rashmi Rocket movie marketing campaign, #LetRashmiRun, attempted to spread awareness around gender disparity in sports while leveraging influencers and social media tools for mass reach.

Category Introduction

One of the most accelerated industries in the economy, the OTT sector currently stands at 353 million users and 96 million active paid subscriptions, which translates into a penetration of 25.3% as per Ormax Media Report 2021. With COVID-19 having acted as an accelerant to digital video streaming, the ecosystem has seen a flurry of innovation and disruption, and it is likely to maintain its upward trajectory even in the future. The OTT industry is further poised for aggressive growth prospects with access to better mobile connectivity, digital infrastructure, and smartphones which is expected to catapult the growth from $1.5 billion in 2021 to $4 billion in 2025 and further to $12.5 billion by 2030. Businesses are trying to find newer ways to reach out to their target audience who are increasingly feeding on a staple digital diet and are ready for the next wave of content innovation.

Brand Introduction

Stemming from Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL), a Global Content Powerhouse, ZEE5 is a home-grown video streaming platform and a multilingual storyteller for multiple entertainment seekers.

Enriching the platform’s bouquet of content offerings with relevant Indian stories, ZEE5 recently released Rashmi Rocket, a sports drama based on true events, starring Tapsee Pannu, Priyanshu Painyuli, Abhishek Banerjee, and Supriya Pathak. Based on gender testing in sports for female athletes, it narrates the inspiring story of a small-town girl and her journey of becoming a national-level athlete.

Summary

With an eye to create social impact through cause marketing, ZEE5 launched a social awareness campaign, #LetRashmiRun, ahead of the release of the film to drive awareness and encourage support against gender testing – an otherwise less discussed issue on public platforms and forums, as an overarching theme of the movie marketing strategy for the film.

Following a 360-degree approach, ZEE5 launched multiple immersive and engaging initiatives such as digital and social media activations, influencer collaborations, strategic ad placements, brand associations, television promotions, and on-ground events with a view to creating deeper engagement with the target audience as part of the movie marketing campaign.

Problem Statement/Objective

The Rashmi Rocket movie marketing campaign aimed to educate people about the old and unfair practices of gender testing for female athletes. In line with the theme, the movie attempted to break existing social constructs, addressing the many stereotypes that women find themselves boxed in, even today.

Brief

Rashmi Rocket needed to raise pertinent questions about the practice of gender testing that female athletes are subjected to, worldwide. It aims to educate in an entertaining and engaging manner about an archaic practice that should be left far behind in today’s day and time. Thus, the brief given for Rashmi Rocket movie marketing campaign was not only to bring into focus the promotion of the movie but emphasize and create awareness about the international practice of gender testing for female athletes.

The intention was not to make a change but bring such a discriminatory practice into light which is the soul of the film. Through one central idea further amplified by various phases and mediums of marketing, ZEE5 attempted to generate widespread awareness and social conversations around the film and the issue.

Creative Idea

With #LetRashmiRun, ZEE5 took a stance against gender testing in sports and encourage women’s participation in the sports fraternity, followed by several tactics to spread awareness around the theme, as part of Rashmi Rocket movie marketing strategy.

Challenges

A major challenge was to risk an overarching, umbrella movie campaign by largely focusing on the bigger message that the film wanted to drive than adopting the usual promotional activities. The other challenge was to differentiate and stand out from the competition, given that it was a Dussehra and festive release.

Execution

The first phase of the campaign was a conversation between lead actor Taapsee Pannu and the real-life rocket Hima Das on the latter’s training, routine, and journey to become the celebrated Dhing Express. The exclusive chat was aired on popular news channels. This was followed up by its release on YouTube and other social media platforms to help in further amplification while leveraging Hima’s social media clout.

To further discuss the issue and spread awareness on the topic, the Rashmi Rocket movie marketing campaign strategy involved a panel discussion featuring former marathon runner Dr. Sunita Godara, sports psychologist Freya Katre, formal football player Jyoti Burrnett along with actor Taapsee Pannu aired on NewsX and later featured on their YouTube channel.

Song Releases

Post this, as the film was released around Navratri, adding on to the festive mood, a short 15-second video with Taapsee performing her hook step in the backdrop music of the song ‘Ghani Cool Chori’ was launched on social media. Bhoomi Trivedi, singer of the song, along with other influencers like Adnaan Shaikh, Riva Arora, Sonal Devraj, Jigar Thakkar matched their steps on the song along with the lead star, Taapsee

The hook step challenge was initiated on short video platforms like Moj and Josh, recording over 890 million+ plays and 10k+ video uploads on the former while the latter recorded 90 million+ plays with 2k+ video uploads

On-Ground Activation

The #LetRashmiRun campaign also witnessed a successful on-ground ‘Run with Rashmi’ drive that saw 500+ Mumbaikars run on Carter Road alongside a digital avatar of Tapsee, to support the cause #LetRashmiRun on-ground activity in Mumbai