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Mumbai:
Vodafone ‘MTV Rush’, directed by acclaimed bollywood director
Bejoy Nambiar of ‘Shaitan’ fame, revolves around 12 characters
and the one common string - a 48 hour college festival. It is fast
paced storytelling with unexpected twists and turns in every episode.
The intrigue and surprises packs the punch in the show. At MTV headquarters,
the team decided to do something different while communicating the
key peg of the show. They decided to let the audience feel the ‘Rush’
in its truest sense. MTV created a surge of Rush to surprise the
audience, and while doing that, communicated the theme of the show
through a unique on-ground experience.
On
a Sunday afternoon, a prominent suburban mall in Mumbai city was
chosen as a venue. A surprise was planned as a 2 minute Rush-ed
drama that caught the oblivious youth hanging out with friends in
the mall and multiplex. A high energy drama was conceived to showcase
multiplicity of protagonists and curious mix of talent in one power-packed
performance. The act started with a floor-cleaner who carries on
the mundane cleaning job in the atrium. As the clock ticks, the
audience is startled with the screaming voice of a damsel in distress
being chased by a biker down the stairs. The act brings together
nanchak experts, bmx bikers, soccer free-stylists, b-boys, parkow
stunter; and all this spectacle ends with a revelation about the
show. The mode of promotion was chosen to reflect the energy, edginess
and unpredictability of the show. MTV roped in experts to carry
out the stunts and repeated this act every hour on the hour to drive
the impact.
Aditya
Swamy, EVP and Business head, MTV said “We were looking to
bring alive the emotions associated with the word RUSH... something
that was interactive and engaging... And the disruption we managed
to create had a multiplier effect once we brought the web to the
mix. Add this to the other promotional elements for the show and
you have what we call a 'surround sound' marketing campaign.”
To
build the curiosity and rush, MTV started promoting the hash-tag
#givesmerush on twitter, giving the twitteratis a slice of the thrill
and exhilaration. The hash-tag trended for more than 12 hours. The
uploaded video that captured the on-ground drama ‘Sunday shopping
that guaranteed a RUSH!’ video has fetched more than 70 thousand
views on YouTube.
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