The Campaign

In 2014, India witnessed the world’s biggest democratic elections with 814million eligible voters, of which 12million+ were first time voters -the biggest Youth election in the world. But there was only one problem: NO ONE CARED. The youth never has been the focus of an election. And in turn, the youth has never cared. It’s been always a vicious cycle. Where does MTV come in? MTV is a great believer in the power of youth and has always led social movements to celebrate youth power. With over 30million followers on the social media, 158million TV viewers, MTV wished to be the single apolitical and non-partisan disruptive voice of the youth of the nation! A platform that motivates youth to show up and vote. ‘MTV Rock the Vote’ - conceptualised as a multi-media movement - aimed to make youth aware of this power, and to act on their right to be heard.

The Brief

The singular guiding objective was to make ‘voting cool’, so much so that on the day of voting, the youngsters would feel embarrassed if they did not flaunt the mark of voting (a black ink mark on the finger). The final objective was to ensure that they showed up at the voting booth, because if they showed up, they would definitely vote.

Results

Consumer Impact •2014 elections broke all earlier records of voter participation, esp. with regards to the youth •16Million Youth participated with MTV RockTheVote through registrations •80million digital impressions reaching 27million fans on Facebook; 15.6million through #TwitterTownhalls, 30million on television; and 2million live interactions on-ground; This was indeed a multi touch-point movement PR Buzz •MTV RockTheVote received a whopping $ 1million coverage through earned media as one of the most effective election based campaign and was covered across all leading media channels and outlets viz. BBC, CNBC, Financial Express, Times of India, Economic Times etc. •Active participation by all the leading political parties including the winning party of Elections 2014 viz. spokesperson from Congress, BJP and AAP •Supported by leading Bollywood actors and musicians Brand Impact •The channel viewership (GTVT) increased 50% in Jan-July 2014 •Promax 2014 : Won GOLD for Best Integrated Marketing Campaign •SABRE South Asia :Won 2 GOLDs for Most Effective campaign in Public Education and Special Event Categories

Execution

Phase1: 6 short films +daily cartoons on youth issues to trigger voter registration: viral-ed through earned-media Phase2: Busting the Myth that registrations are tough, across 200 colleges reached 16million youth and set up voter-education camps. Further promoted through college-concerts with prominent music stars which garnered local media attention in each city Phase3: Facilitate debates through social and mobile amplified by earned media 1st-time in India, #TwitterTownhall brought politicians from ruling party and challengers to debate youth issues. And, youth asked them hard hitting questions. All in real-time. #TwitterTownhall was moderated by lead editors from national news-media channels 1st-time across the world, “Dial the Hashtag” launched as mobile feature where youngsters could dial #rockthevote discussions even while being offline Phase4 : The-Dot-is-sexy Quirky-campaign to flaunt the voter-ink-mark(dot) An 'inked' picture became the coolest selfie to post on social-media Co-branded Puma apparel-range endorsed by Bollywood celebrities to further awareness through earned-media

The Situation

In the last elections, less than 15% of the youth actually voted Youth are hyper aware, and it is not that they don’t know how to vote. They simply did not want to Youth did not want to stand in a queue to register to vote or even to get their voter ID cards There was an absence of a youth friendly live platform that allowed them to interact with the political parties participating in elections Inertia mixed with reluctance to discuss critical issues that are affecting the youth, and are pivotal to elections

The Strategy

Launched MTV Rock the Vote in partnership with ‘Rock The Vote’ – the US based non profit Organization to drive conversations around elections. MTV Rock The Vote was planned as a multi-media interactive social movement across 8 months to ensure it enabled registrations, engaged with audience across various touch-points and branded content to ultimately remind them to show up to vote. The campaign was launched in 5 phases across 20 cities across India. The campaign was supported by 30 of the biggest youth icons and celebrities in India and 10 national political leaders joined in to appeal to the youth to go out and vote. A new mobile feature "Dial the Hashtag" was launched for 1st time across the world on Twitter in association with ZipDial Set in intersection of humour, music and politics, the campaign launched its own music anthem, 12+ college concerts and co-branded apparels with Puma