Honda looks for the Ultimate Stunner

To promote its recently launched motorbike, the CBF Stunner, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI) launched a multi-city campaign, aptly called CBF Stunner 10, in mid-November.

The "part contest and part CSR (corporate social responsibility)" campaign, as Honda puts it, was launched with the objective of taking the brand's message across to its target audience, identified to be the youth of the country as well as creating major awareness for the CBF Stunner.

Providing an extra fillip to the campaign is Honda's promise that the winner, who will be called the Ultimate Stunner, will get a chance to become a video jockey on Bindaas TV.

“With this campaign, we wanted to promote the brand philosophy of the CBF Stunner that safety can also be fun. Generally, young people have the notion that safety and fun don't go hand in hand. We at Honda wanted to tell them that it is very well possible to have fun while driving responsibly,” says a Honda spokesperson to afaqs!

The contest was activated simultaneously in 23 cities in the country, among them Chandigarh, Jalandhar, Delhi, Jaipur, Vadodara, Thane, Mumbai, Nagpur, Goa, Lucknow, Bhopal, Raipur, Kolkata, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai.

In 22 cities, the activation was done by Mirchi Activation except for Chandigarh, where Big Reach were in charge. Bindaas TV promoted the campaign on television.

“We have worked on many projects with Radio Mirchi, but we also wanted to try Big FM for this activity. This campaign provided us a good chance for that. The experience with Big FM has been great – the activation was handled by them with great expertise,” asserts the Honda spokesperson.

In the first phase of the campaign, registrations for participation were invited at the top five colleges in each city; 25 candidates were shortlisted from each college.

In the second phase, 10 candidates were selected from each city. Participants were judged on parameters such as safety riding skills and whose personalities matched with that of the brand.

In the third phase, grooming lessons were organised for finalists of each city, which focused on improving their communication skills, style and overall personality. Experts supervised the lessons. After the lessons, there was a photo shoot and then each finalist received a CBF bike, complete with riding gear, for the next 20 days.

In Phase 4 of the activity, the finalists drove their bikes to several youth hangouts such as malls, colleges, multiplexes, marketplaces, cafes, schools and Honda showrooms to showcase the bike. They had to interact with the public to promote the bike and the gear. They discussed safety riding skills with people. They also had to appeal for votes from the public to help them win the contest.

The on-ground part of the campaign gets over with the completion of the fifth phase. Now, Bindass TV takes over.

The sixth and final phase, which is yet to start, will see a final audition being held in Mumbai, where all the city winners will assemble. All the Stunners will go through this final audition and various tests and challenges. The Ultimate Stunner will be selected at the end of this phase.

After the 35-day on-ground activation, Honda claims that it received more than 8,000 registrations and reached more than 200,000 people through the on-ground activities.

During the first five phases, the two radio partners carried out cross-promotions along with Bindass TV, which covered the entire activity on its channel. The sixth phase will also see promotions on Bindass TV, supported by spots on Big FM and Radio Mirchi.