Why is this work relevant for Integrated?

With this launch, the platform aimed to redefine heartland dramas (a genre that is overall an OTT favorite) and bring back the big, bad, and bold gangsters to your preferred choice of screen. The objective was to drive new user engagement and create awareness for this series – without traditional marketing tools like OOH, outdoor events etc due to the pandemic.

Background

With new users flocking to OTT platforms amidst a nationwide lockdown – MX Player decided to up the ante of entertainment with Raktanchal – a high octane, action packed crime drama inspired by real events from the 80s of Purvanchal, Uttar Pradesh. Exploring the concept of thekedaari - this story revolves around the time when the state’s development work was distributed through tenders and explores a surreal journey into the brutality set in the Indian hinterland.

Describe the creative idea

The campaign was designed to compel audiences to pick a side between the two protagonists. Unlike the usual right vs wrong dilemma, this particular choice rested between choosing the lesser of the two evils as we introduced Waseem and Vijay, two menacing villains that the viewer would normally love to hate.

Describe the strategy

To stand out amidst the clutter of shows/films that have also used Crime in UP as the background, we devised a two-pronged approach to get the viewer invested in the journey of the protagonists, as opposed to making it about a general crime drama. STEP 1: To build the two iconic gangsters/villains in the series and get audiences involved in their journey, their motives and the power politics that they’re ensconced in. Hence, we introduced viewers to the criminal empire of Waseem Khan (Nikitin Dheer) who rules the tender mafia and his challenger, a young criminal Vijay Singh (Kranti Prakash Jha) who is driven by vengeance. STEP 2: We then established the world of Raktanchal that is fertile ground for crime, corruption, crude guns and harped on the mafia-raj culture that bled this region one bullet at a time.

Describe the execution

With all on-ground initiatives being disrupted and a large void created with the lack of OOH and events, we rechanneled our efforts to reach consumers where they are most active and devised action points with TV, Digital, Local Cable, Social and PR as mediums to drive buzz. Breaking away from the usual route of show promotions, we launched the campaign by introducing the two protagonists of the series and positioned them as strong, power hungry men driven by their own motives of power, greed and vengeance. This was done through two robust promos for both the characters, highlighting their individual strengths. These promos were further boosted on social media through influencer/celebrity shout-outs which saw support from Siddharth Malhotra, Ravi Dubey, Nakuul Mehta, Nia Sharma, Dishank Arora, Amit Tandon, Varun Tej Konidela, Shiv Panditt, and Kushal Tandon amongst others.

List the results

The series was well received by viewers across the country – be it metros as well as Tier II and Tier III markets Raktanchal went on to become one of the most watched shows on the platform The total reach for TV, Local Cable and Digital was a staggering 56mn The PR outreach across print, online, radio and TV garnered an earned media value of a whooping INR 4.5 CR. Social outreach garnered a total outreach of 92mn, 52mn total views and 31mn total engagement