Inside: Mountain Dew's multi-brand anthem based campaign

In a bid to celebrate the resilient spirit of India amidst the ongoing pandemic, Mountain Dew collaborated with other brands to launch its new anthem leveraging core value of #DarrKeAageJeetHai. The agency-brand duo take us behind-the-scenes.

Leveraging the brand philosophy of 'Darr Ke Aage Jeet Hai', Mountain Dew launched its brand anthem as an extension to its Independence day campaign. It collaborated with other brands to salute the spirit of India, aiming to instill faith that despite the ongoing challenges, the nation will emerge triumphantly in the face of a pandemic.

In a soulful number sung by Singer, Sukhwinder Singh, Mountain Dew collaborated with brands such as Dunzo, Burger King, Amazon India, Red FM, Vistara & more, to bring forth the patriotic anthem- 'Ye Desh Hai Veer Jawano Ka' & acknowledge their efforts to tirelessly provide services even during testing times. 

Campaign Insight

The 'collective' efforts of all the brands to come together for a greater good that culminated as the anthem launch, aimed at saluting the spirit of overcoming fear & reaching one's true potential in-line with the brand philosophy 'Darr Ke Aage Jeet Hai'.

Naseeb Puri,
Director, Mountain Dew, and Energy, PepsiCo India, said, "This
Independence Day, we felt that we needed to celebrate the ethos of
India which is ideally summed up in the lines of our anthem, a reminder
in the current times, that we are a nation that has achieved victory in
the face of fear time and again, & we will emerge victorious yet
again."

Thus, the campaign was intended at lauding the brands who continued with their services, inspiring all to remain unstoppable and keep their faith even in the face of the ongoing crisis.

Brief & Objective

The brief was to take Mountain Dew’s inspiring narrative of Darr Ke Aage Jeet Hai further and create something special for Independence Day that resonates with the whole country and helps further echo with the philosophy of the brand.

Puri highlighted that the Mountain Dew anthem aimed at being an enabler allowing people to express their creativity & celebrate the nation.

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Conceptualization & Execution 

The Anthem was built on the themes of hope & fun. "Today people are at home, working twice as hard & looking to express themselves in fun ways", highlighted Puri. Further, she shares that the brand's vision was able to inspire partnerships that brought this idea to life.

"We were fortunate to partner with like-minded brands and influencers who believed in our vision & helped us take the anthem to the next level," highlighted Puri. 

With Sukhwinder Singh lending his voice to the anthem, Swanand Kirkire penning down the lyrics & Ram Sampath composing the melody, the brand was confident that it could instill the required self-belief in the minds of the people.

To execute the activation, Mountain Dew took to social media to showcase how brands like  Pizza Hut, Dunzo, Burger King, Amazon India, Red FM, and Vistara amongst others stand for ‘Darr Ke Aage Jeet Hai’. Each post featured a custom message on behalf of Mountain Dew thanking the respective brand and the services they provide tirelessly in trying times.

Creative brainstorming under lockdown

Harsh Maheswari, Executive Creative Director, Wunderman Thompson, put forth that the fear of corona seemed to have the nation in shackles. "If anything could inspire the people, it was India’s legendary past of countless triumphs in the face of fear. What better expression of India’s resilient spirit than Mountain Dew’s core belief – Darr Ke Aage Jeet Hai & create a rousing anthem with the words", he said.

To celebrate India’s resilient spirit further, the brand also saluted the channel partners for their indomitable spirit through OOH creatives and twitter conversations.

Puri shared that the brand-agency duo & other partners had many brainstorming sessions online & they ensured that the decision-making was not stalled by keeping activity-wise SLAM teams. Staying aligned together into the vision helped to bring alive the campaign.

Video production

From recording songs by renowned singers to shooting a video to acquiring footage rights – everything ran parallel, shared Maheswari. "It’s an always-on planning and iterative execution game." According to the agency, the video, team-working, and even messenger-based tools had become like the cornerstone for accomplishing such projects.

"We were working closely with the Production house basis deliverables' plan that catered to the dissemination of the campaign to the consumers." Wunderman also attempted to align the client at every step & kept them abreast with the ongoing processes for the timely launch of the campaign.

Social media & promotion strategy

Digital plays an integral role in Mountain Dew media plan and this campaign was no exception. The brand, however, also leveraged Television to reach to the heart of Indian consumers with simultaneous scaling on digital platforms. As an digital extension, the brand engaged with both, the national celebrities & popular local influencers to further propagate the message.

Social media remains to be an extremely important consumer touchpoint, shares Maheswari. Hence, it’s always wise to have it as part of the mix in the media plan. "It’s especially helpful for a piece like this anthem as it gives shareability beyond the paid promotions", he added.

The social media strategy paved the way to UGC when people embraced the anthem with dancing, singing, sharing stories & celebrating the spirit of Darr Ke Aage Jeet Hai.

Through this campaign, the brand not only chose to engage but also to spread hope, and reignite India’s spirit of resilience amongst people.

The new normal & beyond

As the world embraced the new normal, Maheswari pointed out that remote working in this phase isn't an issue as long as people are clear about their roles & responsibilities coupled with agility & responsiveness. "The only fundamental is employee safety at this time", he added.

For smoother functioning, he highlighted that communication is the key between a brand and an agency. It is crucial to be present & empathetic about each other while maintaining social distancing- together yet apart, he concluded.