Why is this work relevant for PR?

The key task of the campaign was not just to drive awareness but to ensure action by the TG during the lock down. People would only take action if they felt part of a cause and heard about it from sources they follow. For this critical job, we chose PR as the lead medium because of its highly authentic, trusted and organic appeal. We leveraged the power of PR through national & international news journalists as well as digital influencers and celebrities who organically lent their voice to our message and garnered it the unfair share of attention and action.

Background

Considering that India has the highest population in the world, COVID-19 was bound to pose a huge threat. A nation-wide lockdown was announced on 25th March 2020, with just a 4 hours’ notice. Social distancing and staying home became the need of the hour but would be helpful only if every citizen abided by it. It was physically impossible to ensure that every single one of the 1.3 bn citizen stayed home, especially since India had one of the most understaffed police forces in the world- 1 policeman per 1000 people. Thus it was imperative to create a behavior change and awareness campaign. The objective was to build a system of self-policing, wherein citizens were made accountable for their own safety and health, as well as that of their families.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

The campaign idea began with #MainBhiMumbaiPolice (#IAmAlsoMumbaiPolice), to signal that each citizen is voluntarily assuming the role of the Police, instilling a strong sense of accountability and responsibility within each citizen, for the safety and wellbeing of themselves and their family. As the Mumbai Police campaign took off successfully, it inspired the police forces of different states of India like Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Bangalore and Haryana to also join the movement of self-policing. Creating the umbrella campaign thought of #MainBhiIndianPolice (IAmAlsoIndianPolice). Post this, an unfortunate incident took place in Punjab, wherein a police officer had his arm chopped off by a group of lockdown violators. This sparked off a wildfire of support, making the campaign not just about self-policing and safety of oneself, but about being one with the police in true solidarity and support.

Describe the PR strategy (30% of vote)

The police needed a strong message to urge its population to stay indoors. Through #MainBhiIndianPolice, (#IAmAlsoIndianPolice) we wanted to drive the messaging of self-policing and the importance of staying indoors across India. For it to be effective, the message had to reach & resonate with every single household. COVID-19 posed a threat to everybody and does not differentiate between people be it strata of society, age or gender. The objective was to create widespread awareness and accountability, the target audience was also kept broad, reaching out to all citizens of urban India. We decided to leverage the popularity and influence of celebrities to drive our message supported with human stories that drove engagement across print, electronic, radio and digital media, both national and international. To ensure stickiness and connect the campaign film was used as the main asset along with personalized hashtags for each Indian state for a local connect.

Describe the PR execution (20% of vote)

Since the campaign was executed on pro-bono basis, everything from creation to media deployment was done on a zero-budget. The campaign was created solely for digital platforms, as it would be able to reach out organically to maximum masses, in the shortest possible time. The first film was launched on the Mumbai Police’s Twitter handle and gradually launched across their other social media handles as well. Harnessing the power of PR, the social campaign was endorsed by highly-influential Bollywood personalities like Kareena Kapoor Khan, Soha Ali Khan Pataudi, Sonakshi Sinha, Sonam Kapoor and Anushka Sharma, who posted and re-shared the film on their social media handles, showing support and solidarity towards the Police and emphasizing the importance of self-policing. This celebrity support was then leveraged through media outreach, building organic media stories on entertainment and news portals, highlighting how celebrities stood in support of the Police.

List the results (30% of vote)

With the primary objective of the campaign being to spread awareness and ensure that people maintained lockdown norms, the campaign received resounding support from the citizens of India, including from influential celebrities like Bollywood actors and sportspersons, across major social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter. All of them showered incredible support towards the police force and the idea of self-policing. All of the posts on social media by the celebrities and citizens alike generated a cumulative reach of 248 mn. The campaign received incredible media traction as well, be it print, digital or radio. The cumulative media outreach was 779 mn. Citizens also posted images of themselves holding up the sign of #MainBhiMumbaiPolice or the other campaign hashtags and also took it on themselves to report cases where they saw people violating the norms of the lockdown. To think that, back in 2018 only about 29.9 percent of Indians expressed a “lot of trust” in the police, during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 this figure has significantly shot up to an overwhelming 70 percent Indians expressing the same feeling. (As per IANS-CVoter tracking survey, 2020). With the citizens not only abiding lockdown rules, but also taking on the task of ensuring that everyone else did as well, the campaign helped create a tangible support system for the police forces. Moreover, as the campaign became a clarion call for solidarity and respect, it saw citizens wear the badge of the police with pride and lay their trust in them.