VIDA - Powered by Hero, launches with a campaign by Wieden+Kennedy India

With front-page adverts in the Times of India and other top dailies, VIDA’s initial communications celebrated its status as “India’s ‘not-first’ electric scooter”.

The electric scooter VIDA V1 has been launched with an ad campaign across Delhi, Bengaluru and Jaipur. The campaign, led by the brand platform of “Make Way”, was conceptualised by Wieden+Kennedy’s Delhi office, and is expected to cover formats both offline and online.

Per W+K, “Make Way” is imagined as a rally cry, urging would-be riders to move past the ignorant cynicism of the world, not least in regards to EVs as a whole. As a brand idea, it acts as an anchor to bold, gritty communication that shuns category tropes of greenwashing and hollow claims of change. This is especially evident in the launch advertising material, which features communication such as “Tested in the desert to prevent the world from becoming one”.

A similar spirit of tongue-in-cheek defiance is evident in the work leading up to the launch. Notably, via front-page adverts in the Times of India and other top dailies, VIDA’s initial communications celebrated its status as “India’s ‘not-first’ electric scooter”. This provocative articulation was used to convey the effort and time Hero has put into getting things right, as opposed to rushing headlong into the market. The press work was supported by an innovative on-ground activation at Gurugram’s CyberHub, which further emphasised their focus on R&D and testing.

Speaking on the new campaign, Chandrasekar Radhakrishnan, Head - Business Growth, Emerging Mobility Business Unit (EMBU), Hero MotoCorp, said, “Our endeavor is to create a brand that is empowering, inclusive and optimistic. VIDA is a truly new-age global brand that resonates with customers across the world and is authentic and progressive. VIDA has a distinct brand identity with a tagline ‘Make Way’, which is a call to action for the global changemakers. The pre-launch brief was to bring out our philosophy of being right, rather than rushing to be the first in the market. Subsequently, the launch will focus on bringing out our philosophy of driving change and introduce our segment disrupting propositions to grow the category.

Commenting on the campaign, Santosh Padhi (Paddy), Chief Creative Officer, Wieden+Kennedy India, said, “There is always a different high, when you get to launch a new age product or a brand, which is the ask of the society or need of the future. We are extremely happy to have found a great brand voice for VIDA which is sticky, quirky and youthful. We are happy the way the pre-launch and launch has panned out and we all at W+K are excited to take this wonderful narrative forward in the coming months”

W+K confirmed that the “Make Way” campaign will continue over the next weeks as more information about the VIDA is revealed to audiences.

Credits:

Creative Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, India

Creative team: Santosh Padhi (Paddy), Amrish Kondurkar, Sunayna Sabharwal, Rebecca Wright, Prakhar Khandelwal, Anirban Sengupta, Vipasha D Chauhan and Muskaan Jain

Account management team: Gautham Narayanan, Ayesha Ghosh, Aparna Battoo, Nick Gold, Joanna Grover, Priya Meher Master and Devika Khurana

Planning team: Dan Hill, Ned Hodge, Divyanshu Bhadoria and Shweta Kaul

Media Agency: Dentsu