Mahindra unleashes its Mojo in new campaign; seeks to grow Tribesmen

Mahindra Two Wheelers, part of the $16.9 billion Mahindra Group, has rolled out its first ever campaign for its premium bike – Mojo. Launched in October 2015, the tourer bike has been well accepted by the biking enthusiasts. Conceptualised by Flying Cursor, the TVC breaks across channels today, May 23, 2016.

The ad film, which seeks to reach out to wider audience of bike enthusiasts, embodies the brand philosophy of joy of riding and brotherhood, along with highlighting the performance features of the Mojo.

Since its launch, Mahindra has been consistently building the Mojo brand through Mojo Tribe and Trails, which have created a lot of excitement amongst bike enthusiasts. The philosophy for the Mojo Tribe is to bring together bikers to celebrate the joy of riding and one’s love for the open road – which is the key element in this campaign.

Elaborating on the insight behind the campaign, Naveen Malhotra, Senior GM – Marketing and Product Planning, Mahindra Two Wheelers, said, “A product like this was needed to build credibility and acceptance amongst motorcycle enthusiasts. The first of the rides on the Mojo was the Makers’ Trail, where some of us within the organisation went from Pune to Pritampur. Then we took the trade media on a ride from Bangalore to Coorg. Only then did we go to the market with this product. Before the launch we took the Mojo to all the motorcycle enthusiasts, made them experience the product and got a reasonable booking prior to the launch and the product was very well accepted.”

On the genesis of the Mojo Tribe, Malhotra said that when motorcycle enthusiasts went out, they loved to go out in a group. Therefore, when the company launched the bike in the market, it also launched the community for Mojo – called the Mojo Tribe. “All the rides that happened with the Tribe are called the Trails of the Mojo Tribe. This became one of the core brief to the agency and to take it forward in the campaign we said that we would like to build on what we have been doing and what the bike stands for. The ethos is very clear – Born For the Road. People will love riding and the bike definitely delivers the pleasure of motorcycling. The campaign builds on that. The TVC has been shot keeping that in mind, it captures the journey of the bikers across Rajasthan. It doesn’t show a solitary rider, but a group of five people who are riding together. And when we are depicting here is the Mojo Tribe, the journey that they undertake and we are welcoming people to the Mojo Tribe. This is how the campaign has been built,” he explained.

While TVC is one part of the campaign, there will be a longer campaign of Born For the Road, which involves a lot of consumer engagement programmes with Born For the Road team. Malhotra further said, “We will have user generated content as we have customers and Tribesmen who are riding and who want to take trails that they would participate in and share their stories, which the other motorcycle enthusiasts would like to read. That’s how we are looking at developing it into a complete long campaign.”

Mahindra is leveraging technology to extensively to reach out to people for Mojo. It has presence on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and is also extensively using Whatsapp. Each of the city chapters are connected on Whatsapp. Mahindra has also developed an app for Mojo, which allows people to plan their rides, communicate with other riders, and discuss various topics in the forum. It is available for all Mojo customers and Tribesmen. For people who want to follow Mojo they could also be on the app, but as followers and not as contributors. “We are using every platform that is available extensively because this particular segment is extensively using digital and experience sharing and visual appeal are definitely possible on the digital platform,” Malhotra added.

Speaking more on the creative execution of the campaign, Shormistha Mukherjee, Director & Co-Founder, Flying Cursor, the agency which has partnered for the creative, said, “It’s not just about the product and the Mojo, but the experience of the product. For us, it is about the joy of riding and we also have a fairly active Tribe. This whole conversation is about the bikers’ community – it is not just the bike but also the camaraderie, the brotherhood, being on the road together, experiencing the journey, not just the destination. We’ve had the Tribesmen and women replay that back to us. So we have a lot of UGC content about people who are going on a ride, taking their buddies along with them and sharing their moments. So when we wanted to make this film we wanted to capture all that, because all that is very authentic to what a biker really feels.”

“So we looked at the film really as that one road trip that you always wanted to take – not a planned trip, but a journey where the road is just calling and you are following the road,” she added.

Campaign credits:
Client: Mahindra Two Wheelers
Creative agency: Flying Cursor
Director: Littil Swayamp Paul
Production House: IKIGAI Collective
Shoot Locations: Rajasthan
Song Details: ‘Got My Mojo Working’ by Muddy Waters. Re-recorded by the Blues Band Soulmate