How India's 1st Transgender Band helped make the world a more welcoming place: 6-Pack Band, An Isspeshal Case Study

Background & Brief: 

Unilever’s Brooke Bond Red Label Tea targets SEC BC consumers, positioned on a theme of bringing people closer with tea as a lubricant. Their campaign objectives were to create real everyday stories of warmth & togetherness that stand out and break social barriers. Focused as a priority on West/ North. And make a low-interest category [packaged tea] more engaging.

Our Strategy & Plan: 

Tap into a very topical, relevant global theme of LGBT issues [Caitlyn Jenner, Laverne Cox in Orange Is the New Black, Obama being on LGBT mag cover, Indian Supreme Court verdict recognizing the 3rd Gender, Transparent at Emmies, Eddie Redmayne Danish Girl… were all things buzzing in pop culture in 2015. Tap into all these with music, dance & storytelling. 

And create India & [possibly] the World’s 1st Transgender Band with 6 members of the ‘hijra’ community, with 6 songs, 6 music videos. Amplify with great music, massive collaborations, and PR/ digital. 

Content & Promotions: 

We launched with a cover of Intnl. chartbuster Pharrell William’s ‘Happy’ with Anushka Sharma voice-over. Intentional, to get on to the international

radar. And followed up with an original ‘Sab Rab De Bande [the Chai song] with Sonu Nigam a high energy rap section asking people to chill out over a cup of tea. Link: https://youtu.be/msbZUmaUBuI

Followed collaborations with legend Asha Bhosle & granddaughter; superstar Hrithik Roshan, buzz videos with Shahrukh Khan, Arjun Kapoor; song for YRF’s Sultan featuring Salman Khan to widen reach. Songs in a range of English, Hindi, Marathi with genres spread across uptempo dance to soft Sufi, rap, folk, qawwali and even Stomp to deepen impact. Music videos innovated too from telling their real-life stories, mixed-media animation and integrated the brand in lyrics, video narrative and even used packs to compose music! Amplified by heavy PR and digital push with global celebrities sharing, tweeting. Embedding of songs into radio, music channels, entire telecom ecosystem. Presence at music & film awards shows and more. 

Communication Impact:

The content reached 37+ mn views [a big deal in the pre-Jio days!] Generating INR 150+ mn worth of PR besides a massive social media buzz, PR pick up in mainline, digital, English & regional press – both local, international, consumer & business media… capturing brand essence in messaging. 

The campaign picked up India’s 1st Cannes Grand Prix Glass Lion [among world’s most prestigious creative awards], was in the Top 5 honorees in the world at the 2016 Webby’s. 9 trophies at the 2016 Emvies [Asia’s leading media effectiveness awards], 4 at the Goafest [India’s most prestigious advertising awards], Coverage in Vice’s Gaycation with Ellen Page [Juno], Posts by Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook!

Brand Impact:

84% viewers associated content with the brand. 64% consumers perceived brand makes the world a more welcoming place after this. Brand penetration up 400+ basis points. Brooke Bond Red Label grew 1.3x Vs. the packaged tea category.

But the most powerful result was when Komal, one of the band members received a call from someone after 11 years inviting her over for a meal. This was her dad who had disowned her when she came out from being Kamlesh to accepting her own sexual identity/ orientation and preference. No revenue, award, reward can ever match up to the impact of that. Because that's when content doesn't just deliver impact and reach, but it also delivers meaning!