The Campaign

When it comes to sexual well-being, India has a rather conflicted record. On one hand, its history promotes sexual health and happiness, on the other; modern Indian politicians are quick to impose disturbingly archaic views. This issue was brought to global attention after a series of rapes and women being hung. In response to this, a state minister said that rape was a social crime and that “sometimes it’s right, sometimes it’s wrong”. Durex saw the importance of elevating the issue to drive responsible conversation and bring about a cultural change. Partnering with Ranveer Singh, a Bollywood A-Lister, Durex launched a 2-minute film that asked people to celebrate sex by doing a new dance move we called the Rex. #DoTheRex delivered a message about safe and consensual sex packed into a Bollywood song and dance. The campaign was delivered via YouTube and activated through a series of tactics on social media including bloggers, influencers and effective Digital PR. Over 120 positive sentiment articles were written in the Indian press. The conversation continued in social channels, where the campaign got roughly 30 million impressions. This allowed #DoTheRex to trend both nationally and globally on Twitter.

The Brief

The Durex audience is typically a younger demographic. These are the people that will shape the face of India in the future. By getting this audience talking and breaking down the stereotypes and conventions that traditional India has developed around sex, Durex saw the opportunity to use the power of youth partnered with an impactful message to influence long-term cultural change.

Creative Execution

We partnered with Ranveer Singh, a much-loved Bollywood A-Lister and launched a 2-minute film that asked people to celebrate sex by doing a new dance move we called the Rex. #DoTheRex delivered a message about safe and consensual sex packed into a Bollywood song and dance. Ranveer Singh used his rapping skills to deliver maximum impact with our audience. The campaign was delivered via YouTube and activated through a series of tactics that included: • YouTube videos and ‘making of’ videos for people who wanted to get more involved • A microsite where viewers use their webcams to #dotherex with Ranveer and share their dance through all of their social channels • Activations on Facebook and Twitter that celebrated User Generated Content • Blogger and influencer partnerships with 3 of India's top bloggers • Digital PR and digital media activations

Immediately upon posting the #dotherex video, conversations started. Within a short time, the YouTube video had been seen over three million times, and the YouTube comment conversation with filled with debate from both side. In social media, the campaign achieved approximately thirty million impressions. This got the conversation trending on Twitter both nationally in India as well as globally. The social media activations inspired User Generated Content from tweets to pictures and videos—all tagged #DoTheRex. This showed that the audiences support the campaign. Beyond the three blogger partners, the campaign was talked about by many of India's biggest and most influential bloggers. Their conversation took all forms, including very complimentary parody videos from industry stars like Honey Singh and Poonam Pandey who created their own #DoTheRex videos. And without paying for ATL media, we reached a huge audience thanks to coverage by the mainstream Indian press where over 120 positive sentiment articles were written.

Our objective was to get people talking and create a movement. Grand ambitions require a large canvas delivered in a format people will listen to. As such, we delivered the Durex message in manner that India already loves: a Bollywood style song and dance. But not just any dance, our dance celebrates great sex. So when you have great sex, you #dotherex. But success for Durex was not just delivering a message. We needed to create conversation. As such, social media was the natural stage. However, one of the challenges with Social Media is that people typically follow people who share their opinion. So conversations in social can sound like echo chambers. Our strategy was to bring people to YouTube, as YouTube comments are one of the few places where opposing views coexist. This would then be further activated with bloggers and all the additional Durex social channels.