6 PACK BAND

Short List
Title6 PACK BAND
BrandHINDUSTAN UNILEVER
Product / ServiceBROOKE BOND RED LABEL TEA
CategoryA01. Use of an Artist as a Spokesperson/Ambassador in Partnership with a Brand or a Cause
EntrantMINDSHARE Mumbai, INDIA
Media MINDSHARE Mumbai, INDIA
Idea Creation MINDSHARE Mumbai, INDIA

Credits

Name Company Position
Rituparna Dasgupta Mindshare Partner - Business Planning

The Campaign

India has a rich culture of music and dance. If transgender people were to be accepted, we needed to get India to love and accept them on the biggest stage. Our idea was to launch India’s first transgender pop group – The 6 Pack Band. By putting them in the limelight, we wanted to show that they are just like everyone else. They sang about the importance of gender equality, reinforcing our message of breaking down barriers. Many hijras live on the outskirts of society, facing verbal abuse and discrimination every day. They face a pressure to conform and can’t be themselves. It was integral to the idea that the band released tracks about their philosophy of being happy despite the adversity they are subjected to. The aim was to celebrate togetherness by depicting a more welcoming world by raising awareness for India’s transgender community.

Creative Execution

We launched 6 Music videos over 6 months. Its debut song ‘Hum Hai Happy’, based on Pharrell William’s hit “Happy” recounts their philosophy of being happy despite their adversities. We collaborated with Sonu Nigam, India’s top singer and musician par excellence and the most credible voice in the industry today and created 2 versions of ‘Sab Rab De Bande’, which translates to ‘We are all children of God’ reinforcing that all men are born equally. Launched on Youtube, the songs quickly became a talking point across media. Leading television music and radio channels played them as programming content. They were also integrated into content sharing apps including all the Live-streaming music Mobile apps. Leading Bollywood actors with the likes of Hrithik Roshan, Salman Khan and Arjun Kapoor came forward to lend support by featuring in the music videos and Bollywood brigade went wild on Twitter showing their solidarity and support.

• Brand consideration score touched 69% • Our key metric, “Is a brand that makes the world a more welcoming place” touched 64%. (Source: Millward Brown) • Brand penetration increased +400 base points. • The videos garnered over 8mn views on Youtube with organic viewership >35%, (industry benchmark 11%). • Campaign reached more than 25mn through various hashtags and brand handles. • Videos garnered an engagement rate of > 2%, (industry benchmark 1.07%). • Facebook page had an engagement score of 981 out of 1000, a first for the brand. • UNAIDS, UN Women, the special causes of the UNO supported and recognized the cause. • Komal Jagtap, 6 Pack Band Member: “After years of silence, my brother invited me home” and “The people who used to harass us on the street say, ‘that’s the star from 6 pack band’” • GRAND PRIX Winner of the Cannes Glass Lion 2016.

With our force for good, we launched India’s first transgender pop group, the 6 Pack Band. They released songs about being themselves, obliging India to confront it’s issue of gender equality. With the aim of ending the stigma surrounding them, we generated global awareness of the band and celebrated togetherness by depicting a more welcoming world using one of India’s biggest pop culture passion points – Music.

The LGBT community in India belong to the lowest economic strata and are shunned by their families. With the 6 Pack band, we decided to use popular culture to change Popular Culture. The pieces fell into place. Red Label a 146yr old heritage brand stands for ‘Swaad Apnepan Ka’ – ‘The taste of togetherness/Oneness’. Trans-genders are yearning to be together with society and society is unified by music. We partnered with Sonu Nigam, India’s top Singer and musician par excellence and the most credible voice in the industry today. He lent support to the brand in the bravest and most noble manner possible by singing with the band. 6 Pack Band songs were launched on YouTube. Without stereotyping or mocking the transgender community, which is often the case in Bollywood films, we needed to reach a mass audience so that people can look at them differently, with more tolerance.

Links

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