How Rapido Promoted All Bike Taxis In Its IPL Advertisements

IPL acts as an annual advertising carnival with unmatched reach for many of the sponsors. Building brand awareness and differentiating themselves from a crowded field of rivals are the main concerns of advertising.

This year’s IPL was approached by Rapido in a somewhat different way. In addition to self-promotion, the brand wanted to improve India’s whole bike taxi industry. The campaign’s tagline, “Bike Wali Taxi Sab Se Saxi,” for instance, promotes the complete two-wheeler cab ecology. Naturally, the ad films’ images don’t hold back in presenting Rapido as the commuters’ preferred option.

According to Pawandip Singh, vice president of marketing at Rapido, the campaign was the result of extensive thought about how to promote the category as a whole. “We intended to run a comprehensive, wide-reaching campaign through which we could use bike taxis to go around the entire nation. The phrase also suggests that since we are the market leaders and the campaign is genuinely about the category, we claim the most credit for it.

Three unusual uses for bike taxis are presented in the campaign’s advertisement films. One of the movies shows how to escape a crowded bus using bike taxis, which makes the commute much more convenient.

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The protagonist of the second commercial gets yanked from an automobile searcher’s wait that has been a long-standing urban annoyance. The third commercial clip encourages seniors to find a simple solution to their ongoing transportation difficulties.

According to Singh, micro-mobility is a significant issue in the top 20 cities in the nation. The ease, cost, and safety aspects of the notion are what makes it suitable for this overall offer. These subtleties are subtly captured by the advertising, either directly or indirectly.

The advertising campaign, which debuted on JioCinema, has now been expanded to include television. In response to a question on the campaign’s media mix, Singh states, “We wanted to execute a digital-first campaign, which is why we began it out with Jio. We were able to reach the largest audience because the competition was broadcast without charge.

IPL 16’s first month saw Rapido continue to be a solitary presence on JioCinema.

Singh responds, “Advertisers have traditionally preferred television as a medium. But you can’t conduct the kind of targeting and call to action (CTAs) you can accomplish online. Therefore, we decided to experiment with this marketing strategy and have since added Star to Jio.

With the kind of advertising prowess that IPL offers, the infusion of diverse marketers inevitably results in an overabundance of advertisements. The quantity and frequency of advertisements frequently hinder the likelihood of sticking out from the crowd. In Singh’s opinion, being liked or despised is the only real way to stand out outside of the IPL’s clamor and saturation.

“IPL has become a tentpole event in the country. And since it is cricket, it has the ability to bring the entire advertising fraternity together. But it also creates a lot of saturation. For a brand to stand out, it either needs to be liked or disliked by the audience. That is the only way you can guarantee a reaction.”

Commenting on the target group for the campaign, Singh points out that the entire bike taxi category is finessed to support the commutation systems of metropolitan cities. With a lot of reliance on the metro railroads of these cities, the concerns of first and last-mile mobility become more evident. 

“A person might need to travel a few kilometers to reach their nearest metro station or hubs in these cities. This is where bike taxi thrives as an alternative. The consumer reception within the category has also been very empowering, with people showering praise for the services.”

For Rapido, the aim was for the campaign to become a ‘mindbug’ and an ‘earworm’.