The Campaign

We decided to create a movement that gamified cleaning up and made a boring task seem like fun. The movement started on social media and then transcended mediums to result in people doing fun tasks on ground and sharing these with pride of having made a contribution. A movement, known by ‘Dunk That Junk’ imbibed our war cry as part of the youth’s daily lingo. This was guided by the core insight that ‘anything owned by the individual will be kept in its best condition’ – hence the trick was in making the public realize the streets outside belonged to them like their own home and hence deserved cleanliness as good as their own home. The impact was expected to be high due to the magnitude of the problem, acceptance of the same by the public at large and a unified force was all that was needed to address the

Creative Execution

With the objective of making ‘going to the bin’ fun we approached celebrities to support and kick start the phase. Through their videos they urged people to take up the #DunkThatJunk challenge. We setup a bin for every ten videos received from the participants. We decided to paste our message in bold letters on one of the most prominent symbols of garbage collection in India – the garbage trucks! Every garbage truck in the country was branded with a the war cry ‘Dunk That Junk’ and these trucks were unveiled at a star studded event in the capital, New Delhi with the blessings of the Indian Government. Following this, MTV launched cleanliness drives across 300 colleges in India where students identified local ‘junkyards’ –transforming the area into works of graffiti art. This seamless integration happened across screens including TV, web, mobile and on-ground to mobilize the youth of the country.

PR Impact: • Coverage of over $ 2MN over six months • Coverage in leading national dailies, key online and trade media and extensive television coverage Business Impact: • #DunkThatJunk trended on Twitter nationally in the first two days. • 150+ videos from people across the country, taking up the challenge • Total conversations created – 50k + • Total unique reach generated – 11 million + • Total impressions generated – 151 million + • Estimated twitter user accounts reached: 661,609 • Facebook Reach via brand: 5.3MN; Average engagement per post: 40,000 Social Impact: Following this campaign, the Government of India is now in the process of making littering and defacement of public property a punishable offence, announced at the unveiling of the ‘Dunk That Junk’ branded garbage trucks. We have earned an immeasurable amount of social awakening & behavioral change to the age old bane of Indian society.

‘MTV The Junkyard Project campaign sought to bring about a change in public behavior on a very relevant social issue (street filth) in a fun-filled and contemporary manner, without being too preachy. Our execution resonated a genuine intention & effort to cleanse the streets of India by persuading the youth to be the change agent, thus supporting the ‘Swacch Bharat’ initiative of the Indian Government, and simultaneously reinforcing MTV’s youth connect.’

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

This was an initiative that encompassed audiences irrespective of their demographic details –across gender, age, occupation, income, etc. Such issues of national importance give us a huge opportunity in terms of reaching out to the masses and unifying their consciousness through a common ambition. We utilized multiple media vehicles across platforms to reach a large scale of audience at a higher frequency since behavioral change can only be brought about through continuous harking of the objective. We leveraged popular celebrities generously to appeal and attract the audience by giving a fun treatment to a serious issue. Several media worked simultaneously & real time inciting conversations on the subject and urging people to follow cleanliness habit as much as they do at their homes. Being a diversified media house ourselves, we made sure all owned assets were aptly leveraged in order to garner Reach and Earned media at very reasonable costs.