How a sassy girl called Cemora sold a sexy car called Racemo...

A look at an instagram-heavy marketing effort by Tata Motors and Jack In The Box.

Last week TaMo - Tata Motors' sub-brand, launched Racemo - a two-seater, fully connected, sports coupe at the 87th Geneva International Motor Show.

Meanwhile, in the digital space, Jack in the Box Worldwide, in collaboration with TaMo, launched what the agency calls a 'guerrilla activity' to build intrigue and hype around the launch.

In February, the internet was introduced to a girl named Cemora who set out on a road trip, all by herself. She was a spunky, sassy girl who had no plans, no maps... just adventure on her mind. And that took her to London, Italy, Spain, Romania and Germany.

Cemora Instagrammed the entire journey through pictures, videos and postcards sent to her friends and followers. Over 200 pictures and 7 videos were posted, not to mention the postcards that were sent. These were all shot and produced in partnership with The 120 Media Collective's in-house production company, Sniper.

Nonetheless, where's Racemo in all this, one wonders! Well, that was the challenge for the agency, says Kaizad Pardiwalla, president, Jack in the Box Worldwide - to create pre-launch buzz for the car without revealing its name.

"Our brief was to create tremendous hype and a fan following for the car prior to its launch. However, we couldn't reveal the name of the car, show it, talk about the brand, or even reveal the fact that it was a car. A challenging brief like that deserved an out of the box response. That response was Cemora - a girl who took social media by storm," he says.

But the challenges for the agency were not getting over with just this much. Given that Cemora was just a name, a personality or a voice with no face, it was not easy to give her a personal touch and get users to relate to or engage with her.

"Even if she were a girl, how can anyone just debut on the internet one day and expect to become popular?" quips Pardiwalla, adding that to make this happen, the agency created a backstory for Cemora which was about her India travels. The brand also got leading Indian fashion photographer, Daboo Ratnani to kickstart the campaign. Later, other celebs were also roped in.

No maps. No directions. Just one hell of a ride. #MadNomad #RoadTrippin #Journey #Wanderlust #EuroTrip #GetSetGo #CarpeDiem

A post shared by Racemo (@racemoofficial) on Feb 7, 2017 at 3:11am PST

So… this happened the other night! And that’s why you should always go where people tell you not to, cuz that is where the real party’s at ;) #MadNomad #LondonByNight #TheUnderbelly #LondonLife #ChillinWithTheLads #Travel #Wanderlust

A post shared by Racemo (@racemoofficial) on Feb 14, 2017 at 5:47am PST

Cemora claims to have gained 12,500 followers on Instagram and Twitter, a reach of 12.1 million and (cumulative) 1.7 million likes, shares, comments and video views, almost all of it being organic.

Hey @sirravindrajadeja you wanted the sights and sounds from Italy... Here you go... BTW I prefer the sound more than the sight ;) #MadNomad #Italia #RoadTrip #Racing #BoysToysNoMore #LikeAGirl

A post shared by Racemo (@racemoofficial) on Feb 20, 2017 at 4:51am PST

The subtle spin to the campaign was that everything was shot from the perspective of the car and hints were given to followers all along, whether it was the pictures taken from a height of 3-3.5 feet (the height of the car), the beeping horn, screeching brakes or the tuning of the car radio.

Heard you just got back from your trip @kritisanon. Here’s what I’ve been up to ;) #Spain #Party #Street #Scenes #MadNomad

A post shared by Racemo (@racemoofficial) on Feb 24, 2017 at 6:23am PST

This campaign is Tata Motors' first association with Jack in the Box Worldwide - an integrated communications company with digital at its core, which was founded in 2009. It is part of The 120 Media Collective, other subsidiary brands under which include Bang Bang Films (a commercials production company) and Sniper (commercials and content production).

‪The early bird catches the earworm. :P Met some fellow mad nomads. #NowPlaying - The Gypsies. Tune in! 😎 #MadNomad‬

A post shared by Racemo (@racemoofficial) on Mar 1, 2017 at 4:30am PST

However, this is not the first time Tata Motors went all out to woo the digital audience. Recall that for the launch of its hatchback, Tiago, the brand came up with a web-series in partnership with TVF and launched a virtual reality campaign with brand ambassador Lionel Messi.

There's one side of Germany that everyone talks about. And then there's the Germany that I saw. #MoreThanBeer #MoreThanSausages #MoreThanStereotypes #Germany #Europe #RoadTrip #MadNomad

A post shared by Racemo (@racemoofficial) on Mar 4, 2017 at 6:20am PST

Instagram, on the other hand, also seems to have become a hot favourite amongst brands of late, thanks to its visually interactive nature. Some of the recent examples of such campaigns include Flipkart's trend chain, Tata Cliq's #WhateverCLiQsForYou and Samsung's campaign for Gear S2.

Intrigued...

Sabiha Khan, group account manager - strategy, WATConsult says that given the restrictions around the reveal, it's an interesting way of creating buzz regarding a sports car launch. She particularly likes the punchline, 'I'm the car your parents warned you about...' and the name, Cemora."

"Men have a special place for their car. They tend to romanticise it, the way they'd think about their girlfriends/ wives. So, personifying the brand built on this insight beautifully. Much of the excitement soared thanks to this innate attitude towards cars, especially sports cars, which was leveraged successfully." adds Khan.